Axel Erlandson (December 15, 1884 – April 28, 1964) was a Swedish American farmer who shaped trees as a hobby, and opened a horticultural attraction in 1947 advertised as "See the World's Strangest Trees Here," and named "The Tree Circus."
The trees appeared in the column of Robert Ripley's Believe It or Not! twelve times. Erlandson sold his attraction shortly before his death. The trees were moved to Gilroy Gardens in 1985.

A man rides a horse through a bonfire on January 16, 2009 in the small village of San Bartolome de Pinares, Spain. In honor of San Anton, the patron saint of animals, horses are riden trough the bonfires on the night before the official day of honoring animals in Spain. (Photo by Denis Doyle/Getty Images)

A man rides a horse while others swim on the beach of Gaza City, Friday, August 3, 2018. (Photo by Khalil Hamra/AP Photo)

A gaucho is unseated by an untamed horse during the Creole week celebrations in Montevideo, Uruguay on March 26, 2018. (Photo by Andres Stapff/Reuters)

A soldier reacts after falling off a horse as members of the King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, arrive at Green Park for a gun salute celebrating the King's birthday in London on November 14, 2022. King Charles III is celebrating his first birthday as monarch as he turns 74. (Photo by Daniel Leal/AFP Photo)

Palestinians sit in a fishing boat loaded into a horse cart as they pass on a street in the northern Gaza Strip on October 19, 2022. (Photo by Suhaib Salem/Reuters)

A Palestinian man rides his horse on a beach in Gaza City February 17, 2017. (Photo by Mohammed Salem/Reuters)

Taliban security forces ride horses along the Qargha Lake on the outskirts of Kabul on May 11, 2023. (Photo by Wakil Kohsar/AFP Photo)