Dreyer Mesquite
Seven species of Mesquite cover some 54 million acres of Texas, and parts of Arizona, California, Colorado, Kansas, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Mexico. While most people equate mesquite with only the barbecue grill, bands of woodworkers promote the wood as furniture-class stock. Their efforts have lifted the wood's reputation out of its native land.
Mesquite wood can vary in color from dark brown with wavy, blackish lines to camel tan. Whatever its color, the grain is straight to wavy, medium to coarse in texture, and tightly interlocked. Some of the most spectacular figures I have ever seen in wood, occur in Mesquite.
I met Mr. Dreyer, whom the wood is named after when I pulled into his farm near Marion, Texas to ask if I could, at no charge, remove 2 big mesquite trees from his "yard" that were mostly dead. I just wanted the wood. Mr. Dreyer pointed to a bedroom window and informed me that he was born in that bedroom and had too many great childhood memories of climbing and playing in those trees to let me have them. But he also informed me that he was sure he could do us both a good turn. He took me in his truck to one of his large pastures that was overgrown with Mesquite. Much of it was scrub mesquite, too small to be of any use to me, but there were about 100-110 mesquite trees varying in diameter from 8 inches up to 42 inches that were of great interest to me. The deal we made me was that if I cut the trees down, close enough to the ground as not to interfere with a shredder, he would haul the trunks up to a clearing with his tractor for me to mill and would push all the brush into piles for burning. He was planning to have the pasture bulldozed and burn all the trees since he needed the pasture for grazing cattle. He saved the money and I got the wood, LOTS of beautiful Mesquite! Mr. Dreyer was a joy to be around and had so many interesting stories that he shared, several revolving around his experiences in WWII where he served as a navigator on a B-17 bomber. Mr. Dreyer has since passed and I for one believe the world to be a lesser place without him.
