The Bristlecones Speak. The New Yorker, Jan. 20, 2020.
When I spent time in Death Valley in 2016, I became mesmerized by the sight of Great Basin bristlecone pines clinging to the slopes of Telescope Peak, the highest mountain in the area. I soon made my way to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, in the White Mountains, northwest of Death Valley. I made several visits there in recent months, talking to scientists about these extraordinary trees, the world's oldest. The piece above is the result. I obviously owe a huge debt of gratitude to Andy Bunn, Matt Salzer, Brian Smithers, Connie Millar, and Tim Forsell, who served as my guides. (A connection to my day job: Andy's parents, Frank and Betsy Bunn, are longtime supporters of Emmanuel Music.) I enjoyed the hospitality of the volunteer crew of GLORIA Great Basin, an organization worthy of support. I also received excellent counsel from Jared Farmer, who is writing an eagerly anticipated book about the bristlecones and the mystique of ancient trees. Above all, I thank The New Yorker for letting me go on such strange jaunts.
The Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest is closed for the winter and won't reopen until some time in May, when the roads are cleared of snow. If you go, I recommend setting aside a full day: the walk through the Schulman Grove, the main visitor area, takes about three hours, and the drive up to the Patriarch Grove, another site of spectacular old bristlecones, takes about an hour. If you are not of the camping persuasion, there are decent places to stay in Big Pine and Bishop. Matt, Andy, and I recommend the somewhat paralyzing burgers at Aaron Schat's. The Eastern California Museum in Independence is very much worth a visit, as is the former internment camp at Manzanar, the darkest of American national parks. Anyone passing through Tucson should take a look at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, which has exhibits in its lobby, including A. E. Douglass's pioneering tree-ring chronology. Someday I hope to visit the Great Basin National Park in Nevada, where remains of the Prometheus tree can still be seen on Wheeler Peak. I also hope one day to catch a glimpse of Campito, the ghost horse of the White Mountains. If you follow that last link, you'll find many more mountain and desert stories by Tim Forsell.
A reading list: Michael Cohen, A Garden of Bristlecones; Ronald Lanner, The Bristlecone Book; Donald J. McGraw, Edmund Schulman and the "Living Ruins"; Jared Farmer, Trees in Paradise; Darwin Lambert, Great Basin Drama; Peter Wohlleben, The Hidden Life of Trees; George Ernest Webb, Tree Rings and Telescopes: The Scientific Career of A.E. Douglass; Colin Renfew, Before Civilization: The Radiocarbon Revolution and Prehistoric Europe; David Muench, Timberline Ancients; Rachel Sussman, The Oldest Living Things in the World; Ashee Noren, Ranger Al Noren; scholarly articles by Edmund Schulman, Wes Ferguson, Bryant Bannister, Val LaMarche, Malcolm Hughes, Charlotte Pearson, Matt Salzer, Brian Smithers, Connie Millar, and Barbara Bentz, among others.
