A chip off the old block

People passing by Lakesway Greenhouse in Big Lake lately have noticed a peculiar object staring back at them -- a 12-foot, 3,500-pound brown bear.

Sort of.

The bear is brown, all right, because it's made of wood. Carver Tom Robertson has transformed a 5,000-pound piece of wood from the Anchor River into a huge, 12-foot bear wearing a Boy Scout uniform and giving the Boy Scout sign. The bear will soon be traveling to Texas, where it will reside at a Boy Scout camp.

"I've wanted to do something this big before, but I hadn't had the best wood to do it," Robertson said. "And then this old boy down on the Anchor River said he had a piece, so I traded some carving for it."

That was the beginning of this summer, and after battling his back for a few months, Robertson started in on the bear. Using a 32-inch bar chainsaw for the rough cuts, Robertson started sawing away blocks of wood weighing hundreds of pounds.

The entire bear is carved entirely with chainsaws -- the only hand tool used was a sander.

The idea was born two years ago, when Larry Grona of San Antonio saw Robertson's chainsaw carvings at the Alaska State Fair. He wanted a bear for the camp, and asked Robertson about carving the huge creation.

Robertson sent him a three-foot "prototype" of the bear last January, and Grona told him to go ahead with the 12-footer.

Now that it's complete, the hard part of shipping it begins. Robertson is going to load it on 24-foot pallets, block it in with wood and wrap it in plastic.

A freight company is donating the shipping to Tacoma. From there, Robertson said Grona knows someone who will fly it to Texas.

Robertson owns Alaska Chainsaw Carving and carves yearround from his business, on the property of Lakesway Greenhouse in Big Lake. Carving is how he makes his living, and he said he couldn't see himself doing anything else.

"About seven years ago, I saw an old boy carving in the backyard with some friends, and I was hooked," Robertson said. "My first bears were so ugly. But I enjoy it so much and I'm always learning as I go. If I spend my life doing what I enjoy to do, that's good by me. I get a kick out of it."

Robertson said that sometimes, ideas for new creations are born in an instant.

"You can look at a log for two months and then one second, you see everything," Robertson explained. "It's like you see it in your dreams once that idea hits you."

While the bear is the largest project he has completed, he isn't through carving big.

"It's the biggest -- so far," Robertson said.

For more information on Robertson's carving, interested people can contact him at 892-1002.