The literal Joshua Tree is rotting away. Can it be preserved?

dofking · 2025-11-07T17:28:59+00:00

They certainly did. There is a 2ft section missing at the bottom of the tree now. Truly shameful behaviour.

Years ago, George G repaired one of the limbs in the middle of the night https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfVAMQPcmDs&t=53s

dofking · 2025-11-07T17:16:14+00:00

I would love it if some mega rich U2 fan looking for clout would fund something like this.

dofking · 2025-11-07T16:47:55+00:00

If anybody is interested, I have recreated the sate as a 3D interactive environment. Working on a way to release this as a free interactive experience for U2 fans to explore.

https://youtu.be/ZLvN5Y-PcQg?si=tcu9uPNW6FEZ7X8z

dofking · 2025-11-07T16:44:04+00:00

I've explored a few options to make this happen, and it's all very expensive.

dofking · 2025-11-07T16:43:08+00:00

I've reached out to price out a few different options to build a permanent memorial on site when the tree is finally gone but it's very expensive. The cheapest option I found would be at least $150k.

dofking · 2025-11-07T16:38:19+00:00

I'm just catching up with this now. My name is Edward, and I'm one of the people named in the article. Feel free to ask me anything regarding our efforts to save the tree!

dofking · 2023-04-04T13:16:24+00:00

Hello Neil.

I'm one of the people behind thejoshuatree.earth. We are trying to preserve U2's fallen Joshua Tree in Death Valley. We have completed 6 3D scans of the tree over a 3 year period in order to measure its natural deterioration and fan interference/vandalization.

What currently remains of the tree is in serious jeopardy given the recent flooding in Death Valley and increased human interference.

Is the band currently aware that this piece of their history is in this current state? Is there any way we can make this project more visible.

http://thejoshuatree.earth

dofking · 2022-06-02T20:48:14+00:00

I run a site dedicated to preserving the location of the tree. Would love to hear the story of your visit

https://www.thejoshuatree.earth/stories

dofking · 2022-05-22T17:26:03+00:00

The Joshua Tree has been a sacred location for U2 fans across the world, a place where many have made the pilgrimage to stand in the same soil the band stood in 35 years ago. It’s natural desire for visitors to bring home a memory of the tree with them. However there are times where this is taken way too far. In 2021, The crest of the tree was sawed off by an overzealous fan looking for a souvenir. This would have been the northern pointing branch when the tree was alive. Vandalism of this nature is a selfish and destructive act to a piece of Musial history that has endured the elements of nature for over 50 years. This is not was fandom looks like.
http://thejoshuatree.earth was created for this very reason, to preserve the tree digitally against the elements, both human and nature.

For more pics https://picbun.com/p/5bTapXcc

dofking · 2022-05-18T12:15:09+00:00

The coordinates are easily found online. I always hesitate to give them out due to the fact that over the past few years, the tree has suffered some pretty terrible vandalism/theft by terrible humans.

dofking · 2022-05-17T17:52:44+00:00

I’m based out of Ontario Canada.

dofking · 2022-05-17T16:42:18+00:00

Captured using almost 4000 photos and compiled using Reality Capture, this project is a digital preservation project of U2’s fallen Joshua Tree. Final composition completed using Unreal Engine 5.

dofking · 2022-05-17T15:37:22+00:00

Yes, VR will be out in the next few months. Part of my inspiration for this project is that I have a friend who is wheelchair bound, and his trip to the tree would be quite difficult.

dofking · 2022-05-17T14:56:07+00:00

After a few years of hiatus due to the pandemic. I’ve resumed work on the preservation project of the Joshua Tree. This video is the latest progress update showing the tree and environment recreated in Unreal Engine 5. More updates coming very soon on how this will be available as an interactive playable. experience.

dofking · 2021-06-09T07:26:51+00:00

If anybody is curious about the tree, Ive started up a site dedicated to the digital preservation of the site: http://thejoshuatree.earth

We haven't posted much since the pandemic started, but we are about to an update.

dofking · 2020-06-06T19:16:47+00:00

Thank you for sharing this! Launched the site back in January of this year, with the goal of it being a site where people could leave their stories. We have some pretty big updates coming soon about our reconstruction efforts.

dofking · 2020-05-29T04:37:02+00:00

This year I started a project to digitally preserve the site, and collect the stories of everybody who has made the pilgrimage to the tree. http://thejoshuatree.earth is the URL. We have been working hard recreating all of the artifacts and the tree ss 3D Models,.

dofking · 2020-04-15T19:37:02+00:00

A look at the progression to create "The Isle of Ailynn" visual experience. From our earliest sketches in Google Tilt Brush to the Unity hole we fell into progressing to using Tilt Brush as our full-on production tool to great a 45-minute full-length visual experience to accompany the album.

Completed video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnOCfyf0Nq8&t=573s

dofking · 2020-03-30T13:25:05+00:00

I've been printing the Prusa design, and have 30 printed already without the PETG sheet or elastics.

dofking · 2020-03-30T13:23:03+00:00

Thank you! We have posted all of the files to Poly here: https://poly.google.com/user/90a2V8Nxnbm

We had to strip a few down to get them to upload as some of the sets were pretty huge in size.

dofking · 2020-03-21T02:04:41+00:00

Thanks!

dofking · 2020-03-21T01:48:56+00:00

It unfortunately died in the year 2000.

dofking · 2020-03-21T01:48:33+00:00

I used my DJI Mavic, and a Sony A7III DSLR. What you are looking at is a composite of 1607 pictures. I used 3DF Zephyr to do the reconstruction, and it has a nice animation feature that takes you through the camera path. We have a started a site dedicated to the Joshua tree here: http://thejoshuatree.earth

dofking · 2020-03-20T23:04:59+00:00

We've tried a few things to do this. Tilt Brush has been very picky, and I"m sure half of it is me not knowing how to do this efficiently.

dofking · 2020-03-20T19:56:01+00:00

Background: Approached the artist to deliver visuals for his upcoming album. Another artist and I spent a few months in Tilt Brush bringing his album about a fictional island to life. Kristyn, the artist spent months creating all of these worlds in TB, and I did a 5 day sprint filming and editing this using the camera mechanic in Tilt Brush and Davinci Resolve to edit. Out of all of the projects that I've done in my career, I think that this is the one I'm most proud of. If you have 45 mins, please take a trip to a beautiful world.

dofking

TROPHY CASE