image: Wikimedia Commons

Long before “sustainability” became a buzzword in the trade show industry, exhibitors were creating traffic builders out of all-natural materials. For its pavilion at Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, the U.S. Government transported a 50-foot-tall section of a 2,000-year-old giant sequoia tree from California. The 26-foot-diameter massive trunk included an interior circular staircase attendees could ascend. Some dubbed it the “California Hoax,” believing no tree in nature could attain that size. After the Expo, the tree was moved to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where it stayed until 1932.