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Description
Hey Old Timer!
The secret life of the Bristlecone Pine.
By Korin Gould

Howdy! My name’s Methuselah. You’re probably wonderin’ who the Sam hill I am and why you should give two hoots in an owls nest. Well, I’ll tell ya...

I live at a super secret location in a forest called ‘The White Mountain Range’ Heck, I don’t even know where I am half the time. Why all the mystery you ask? It just so happens that I belong to a family of trees called the ‘Bristlecone Pine’ the oldest living trees in the world. Actually we’re the oldest living… anything! As for me, well I just happen to be the oldest of them all! I’ve been on this here same spot for about 4,789 years! Give or take a few years, (when you get as old as I am you tend to lose count.) That means I was already 4,600 years old when your great, great grandparents were still in diapers! I’m real purdy too, although I’m not that tall I have lots of trunks that are all twisted together. It makes me look like those creepy trees you see in cartoons. My bark is a red-brown colour and is smooth because the wind whips sand and ice around it over the years.

You live where now?
My kinfolk and I live in the high (about 11,000 feet!) mountainous regions of what is called the Great Basin. It spreads over parts of Nevada, California and Utah, which is over the west side of North America.
How you be so old…
You want the secret to near immortality? Pace. We grow really, really slowly. My long life also owes much to my wood. It’s real thick so no insects or bacteria can get through. Yep nothin’ gets through this body! The average life of a Bristlecone is about 1,000 years. The oldest ever tree went by the name of Prometheus (Pra-mee-thee-us).

Who’s this Prometheus fellow?
He was the oldest thing on this here planet. His life was tragically cut short in 1964 when a young geologist, who was looking for information on Ice Age glaciers, got one of his tools stuck in Prometheus’ trunk. Then he got permission from the government to chop him down! Poor old Prometheus was no more. Later dendrochronologists (den-dro-chro-nol-o-gists) discovered that he was 4,862years old! That’s older then the Pyramids, in fact, that’s older than Egypt itself! Prometheus is the reason all us other trees are so well protected. So we don’t get hurt.

Dendro-what-agy?
This is what they call the study of those rings inside of us trees. It helps scientists understand what the weather was like thousands of years ago. So thanks to us you can find out how cold it was back in the days of pharaohs and emperors.

Well thanks ya’ll for talkin’ to me! Maybe you could drop by some time. Bye ya’ll!

*It’s a Fact-a-roonie!

Prometheus was named after a character from Greek mythology.
Because he gave fire and arts to mankind, the gods chained him
to the side of a mountain for thousands of years! Good name
don’t ya think?

Description
Hey Old Timer!
The secret life of the Bristlecone Pine.
By Korin Gould

Howdy! My name’s Methuselah. You’re probably wonderin’ who the Sam hill I am and why you should give two hoots in an owls nest. Well, I’ll tell ya...

I live at a super secret location in a forest called ‘The White Mountain Range’ Heck, I don’t even know where I am half the time. Why all the mystery you ask? It just so happens that I belong to a family of trees called the ‘Bristlecone Pine’ the oldest living trees in the world. Actually we’re the oldest living… anything! As for me, well I just happen to be the oldest of them all! I’ve been on this here same spot for about 4,789 years! Give or take a few years, (when you get as old as I am you tend to lose count.) That means I was already 4,600 years old when your great, great grandparents were still in diapers! I’m real purdy too, although I’m not that tall I have lots of trunks that are all twisted together. It makes me look like those creepy trees you see in cartoons. My bark is a red-brown colour and is smooth because the wind whips sand and ice around it over the years.

You live where now?
My kinfolk and I live in the high (about 11,000 feet!) mountainous regions of what is called the Great Basin. It spreads over parts of Nevada, California and Utah, which is over the west side of North America.
How you be so old…
You want the secret to near immortality? Pace. We grow really, really slowly. My long life also owes much to my wood. It’s real thick so no insects or bacteria can get through. Yep nothin’ gets through this body! The average life of a Bristlecone is about 1,000 years. The oldest ever tree went by the name of Prometheus (Pra-mee-thee-us).

Who’s this Prometheus fellow?
He was the oldest thing on this here planet. His life was tragically cut short in 1964 when a young geologist, who was looking for information on Ice Age glaciers, got one of his tools stuck in Prometheus’ trunk. Then he got permission from the government to chop him down! Poor old Prometheus was no more. Later dendrochronologists (den-dro-chro-nol-o-gists) discovered that he was 4,862years old! That’s older then the Pyramids, in fact, that’s older than Egypt itself! Prometheus is the reason all us other trees are so well protected. So we don’t get hurt.

Dendro-what-agy?
This is what they call the study of those rings inside of us trees. It helps scientists understand what the weather was like thousands of years ago. So thanks to us you can find out how cold it was back in the days of pharaohs and emperors.

Well thanks ya’ll for talkin’ to me! Maybe you could drop by some time. Bye ya’ll!

*It’s a Fact-a-roonie!

Prometheus was named after a character from Greek mythology.
Because he gave fire and arts to mankind, the gods chained him
to the side of a mountain for thousands of years! Good name
don’t ya think?