Gopher wood Wikipedia. You may be looking for the tree Torreya taxifolia, sometimes called gopher wood. A painting of Noahs Ark, said to be constructed from gopher wood. Gopher wood or gopherwood is a term used once in the Bible for the substance from which Noahs ark was built. Genesis 6 1. 4 states that Noah was to build the Ark of gofer, more commonly gopher wood, a word not otherwise known in the Bible or in Hebrew. Although some English Bibles attempt a translation, older English translations, including the King James Version 1. Watch Free Wool 100%. The word is unrelated to the name of the North American animal, the gopher.