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Local chainsaw carver turns dead tree into work of art at English Landing Park

The new attraction is getting a lot of attention
Posted at 3:32 PM, Jul 22, 2016
and last updated 2016-07-22 23:37:13-04

The new attraction is getting a lot of attention.

A 13-foot tall wood carving towers above park goers.

An old cottonwood tree has been turned into an eagle.

"It is an amazing work of art," said Nan Johnston, the mayor of Parkville. "To say that we were pleased with the result is understatement. He did a marvelous job." 

The man who used a chainsaw to turn a dead cottonwood tree into an eagle is TJ Jenkins.

"I put far more into the eagle than I would anything else," said Jenkins, who worked for eight days to carve the Eagle. "Parkville is my local park, it's that park I visit the most."

Jenkins said the size of the eagle was the big challenge.

"I did not know how it was going to turn out. It's a 13-foot carving, it’s impossible to step back and see what it’s going to look like because I would fall off the scaffolding. It turned out far better than I could have imagined," Jenkins said.

Before Jenkins fired up the chainsaws, the city of Parkville held a contest about what to carve.

"We had the public choose between Lewis and Clark, a bear and the eagle," Johnston said.  "The eagle was the overwhelming choice."

Jenkins has carved hundreds of bears, but only a handful of eagles. The one at English Landing Park is only his sixth. Jenkins hoped to make it the best large woodcarving he had ever seen.

"It blew me away when I actually got it finished," said Jenkins.

The eagle is so popular that the city is now holding a contest to name the carving.

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Richard Sharp can be reached at richard.sharp@kshb.com.

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