LUCAS — Although the historic Shawshank oak tree no longer stands, people can keep a piece of it in the form of a bottle opener — or perhaps other products — soon.
On Tuesday, April 18, the Shawshank Oak Tree LTD. and Natural Wood Mirrors signed a contract regarding the white oak that was made famous through the 1994 movie “The Shawshank Redemption.”
It will allow Brian McNeal of Natural Wood Mirrors to create products from the wood and to possibly work with other businesses. Some of the ideas for products include coasters, keychains and bottle openers in the shape of a rock pick, similar to the one Andy used to tunnel his way out of prison in “Shawshank Redemption.”
“My natural wood creations business serves as the tree owner’s representative to take her tree through the full line of production,” McNeal said. “All other parties (those creating the products) will be involved under my business and managed by my business.”
According to McNeal, another agreement is also in the works between The Shawshank Oak Tree LTD, the Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society and his own Natural Wood Mirrors, which will allow each of the businesses to sell the same line of Shawshank tree products on their websites and, for the reformatory, at its gift shop.
The products will come with certificates of authenticity and will be similarly priced.
Products made from Shawshank wood can be viewed at naturalwoodmirrors.com. Most are marked as “sold out” and cannot be added to the shopper’s cart, but a wooden chalice and jars of sawdust are not marked this way and can be ordered now.
“They haven’t even been made yet,” McNeal said, continuing to explain that he has “no less than 200 emails” asking about the tree.
He said the products will be available for purchase soon and they were only posted for people to see what would be available. There were more than 43 items initially, but he has cut back recently.
According to a Facebook post by the Shawshank Oak Tree Ltd, sales will begin the weekend of May 1 on theshawshankoaktree.com. McNeal, however, wasn’t able to confirm this.
Most of the products, which include the magnets, keychains and coasters, will be made by Natural Wood Mirrors. But according to McNeal, two other businesses, one based in Pennsylvania and the other from Portland, Oregon, may also be involved in creating products from the Shawshank wood.
Alex Traxler, owner and operator of Griffen Hollow Studio in Columbus, was also going to be involved by making bottle openers with the wood. He recently began production and had posted the product to his site, but today’s contract changed that.
“They are able to ship the ones they sold, but not continue to sell any further through his site.”
“It seems like they want to keep the sales under one roof for now,” Traxler said about it. “No hard feelings.”
When Traxler spoke with the Richland Source Monday, he said the products were “selling like hotcakes.”
Made famous by the movie, the white oak tree in the movie marked the spot where Andy (Tim Robbins) left an envelope of money for Red (Morgan Freeman) to find, allowing him to meet him in Zihuatanejo, Mexico.
This stop on the Shawshank Trail stood on private property along Pleasant Valley Road in Lucas until Saturday, April 8, when it was cut down. It had been damaged by a storm in July 2011 and fell in nearly five years later in July 2016 following another storm.
According in McNeal, the wood being used to create products now is from when the tree was first damaged in 2011. He said the other wood wouldn’t be dry enough yet.
