Bristlecones

Only recently we have learned that certain stunted pines of arid highlands, not the mammoth trees of rainy forests, may now be called the oldest living things on earth. Microscopic study of growth rings reveals that a bristlecone pine tree found last summer at nearly 10,000 feeet began growing more than 4,600 years ago and thus surpasses the oldest known giant sequoia by many centuries. It stands in the Inyo National Forest, in the White Mountains of east-central California.

Many of its neighbors are nearly as old; we have now dated 17 bristlecone pines (Pinus aristata) [sic] 4,000 years old or more, all in the White Mountains and 9 of them in the area we came to call Methuselah Walk.

Edmund Shulman (1908 - 1958) first ventured into the Bristlecone Pine Forest in 1953 at the urging of the Forest Service District Ranger Al Noren, who had heard of Schulman's search for old trees. Dr. Shulman was attempting to extend his continuous tree-ring chronolgy when he sampled some of the trees in what is now called Schulman Grove. His discovery of living 4,000 year-old trees and eventual discovery of the oldest living tree in the world was his reward for years of persistent research.

Dr. Shulman lived to be only 49 years old, but his contribution to the science of dendrochronology and our knowledge of the natural history of the ancient bristlecone trees remains highly significant. In 1959, this area of the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest was named Schulman Grove, in his honor. The text in this handout was written by Dr. Shulman before his death as the basis for a landmark article on the bristlecone pines published in National Geographic, March 1958. It has been edited for brevity.