Axel Erlandson was a Swedish American farmer who started training trees as a hobby on his farm in Hilmar, California, in 1925. He was inspired by observing a natural sycamore inosculation in his hedgerow.[1] In 1945, he moved his family and the best of his trees from Hilmar to Scotts Valley, California, and in 1947,[2] opened an horticultural attraction called the Tree Circus.