There was a forest in Port Clements on the Queen Charlotte Islands off the Beautiful British Columbia shoreline. This forest was home to the only Giant Golden Spruce in the world. This tree was sacred to the natives and it was the source of many myths and stories. The locals on the island embraced the tree and it brought tourists from all over. It was even part of the town’s logo. Walking through the forest by the Yakoun River you would be surrounded by green sitka spruce trees all around you, with just one towering above the rest that, because of a rare mutation was glowing a bright gold. As if each branch were a string of holiday lights. People who have seen it have called it a real life fairy tale tree. This is the story of the man who cut that tree to the ground and has been missing for almost 20 years.

His name is Grant Hadwin. If you get lost in the comment sections of some of the articles written about Grant Hadwin, you’ll see people refer to him as eccentric. An unstable, loud, drunk. An unemployed loser. An asshole. However, there’s a side to each story. Looking at Grant, you would see a tall, fit, chiseled man who came from an educated family in West Vancouver. A man that has outran grizzly bears, gone swimming in thirty five degrees below zero weather, he even once disappeared without telling anybody

Now, just to be clear, it's not like Hadwin just lost his cool one day and arbitrarily cut this tree down. He spent a long time writing letters and appealing to every public outlet, government agency, he contacted everyone up certain chain of commands that he could. He wrote to the Vancouver Sun to try and create awareness, Greenpeace to ask for help, even the police. Ultimately, after his letters went nowhere, falling on deaf ears.

On January 20th 1997, Grant Hadwin swam across a river with a chainsaw, walked up to the Golden Spruce and fell the revered tree. This act left the entire local community stunned. There was outrage, threats, tears and Grant was arrested at first.

Hadwin was given a court date to plead his defense on February 18th 1997 in Masset, British Columbia. There were rumors going around that he wouldn't live to see his hearing, that some people wanted him dead. Because of that, he told acquaintances that he didn't feel safe riding the ferry to Masset and he wanted to take his kayak. After he left Port Clements in his boat heading north up the inlet, he was never seen again. In June 1997, the wreckage of Hadwin's kayak was found on Mary Island, 70 miles northwest of Prince Rupert. Because Hadwin was known to be an expert in wilderness survival, some believe that he faked his own death and vanished into the wilderness. His ultimate fate is unknown.

Grant Hadwin's case is still considered open, and people still have very strong feelings about what he did 20 years ago in one way or another. What do you guys think? Can we justify Grant's actions or is what he did worthy of punishment and hatred? Let me know what you think.