In the summer of 1964, a geographer named Donald Currey was studying ancient bristlecone pines below Wheeler Peak. He found a tree local mountaineers called Prometheus. Accounts differ on what happened next. Some say his coring tool broke off in the tree. Others say he wanted a full cross section. Either way, with Forest Service permission, the tree was cut down. When they counted the rings, Prometheus had 4,862 of them. It was estimated to be about 4,900 years old, the oldest tree anyone had ever dated. Today its stump is all that’s left. Something that survived nearly five thousand years was lost in an afternoon because nobody realized what they had. Don’t wait until it’s gone to treasure what God put in front of you.
