On This Day In 1964: Prometheus - The World's Oldest Tree At 4,844 Years Old Cut Down "Unwittingly"

Prometheus certainly had a good run.
(c)Wikipedia

On This Day In 1964, the world's oldest tree named Prometheus (WPN-114) was accidentally cut down at 4,844 years-old.

While studying the climate dynamics of the Little Ice Age as a graduate student at the University of North Carolina, Donald Rusk Currey was made aware of the bristlecone pine trees in Neveda at the Wheeler Park mountains.

He then found out that some of the trees were extremely ancient and decided to obtain a good amount of tree cores from Prometheus to run tests but was unsuccessful.

Currey decided to cut the tree down.

Once the public was made aware of the tree's demise years later, controversy and criticism peaked.

This would lead to tighter rules and restrictions with the felling of old trees.

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