1,073 Isn't Old Unless You're a Tree

I'm working in California. It's a different place. We're rebuilding a creek, making it a 'moonlit evening, candlelight dinner, soft music and a bottle of wine' for fish. I'm telling you, if I were a fish, I'd lay eggs here, for sure.

Nearby stands a redwood tree, named, 'Palo Alto,' a magnificent tree. The arborists worked around it yesterday, using radar to find the location of it's roots. One told me it's 1,073 years old. I'll do the math for you, it started as a little tyke in 940. I can't remember the last time I saw a calendar with a three digit year.  What happened in 940? It was a leap year and started on a Wednesday. Thrilling, right? Gorm the Old, the oldest king, reigned in Denmark, and it marked the birth of Brian Boru, the High King of Ireland. You are going to ROCK on Jeopardy! 

The top died recently, and it's because the water table has dropped and it can't lift the water high enough. It used to be 163 feet tall, now is a measly 110 feet. Shoot, I'm complaining about shrinking an inch. They installed a pump, pipe and mister to help it along.

That is one awesome tree. People come from everywhere to visit it, like Peter, a Danish man I met who came to America for many other reasons, but stopped to see the tree. Hence the Danish referral.
Palo Alto originally sported two trunks, but in the late 1800s (just the other day), a flood took out one trunk. The experts assure me that the tree is more healthy than in the last hundred years.

It's a California Historic Landmark. Number 2. Okay, number one is the old customhouse in Monterey. Sign up for Jeopardy, now.

"I'd like really really old trees for a thousand, please."

2 comments:

Mel said...

So, you say that at one time Palo Alto sported two trunks? I have a friend who's so skinny that he often loses his trunks when swimming. I'm going to suggest that he, too, will consider sporting two trunks! Thanks for the great idea!

Unknown said...

I just hope he doesn't put one on each leg.
KP