BERNALILLO COUNTY, N.M. (KRQE) — There are nearly 100 old-growth trees across the Sandia Mountain range that dawn a medallion with nothing other than a date, a number, and a historic event engraved along the circumference. How the medallions found their place on the bark has mostly remained a mystery to the hiking community, although a social media post from late July has brought a new theory to the surface.
KRQE News 13 spoke with New Mexico Wild Conservation Director Bjorn Fredrickson. He says the medallions are part of a project involving 84 confirmed trees that are pretty much scattered across the mountain range, with just a bit of concentration on the south end. These trees have all had a “core sample” taken from them. “They’re able to count the tree rings and estimate the age of the trees,” said Fredrickson. “And then kind of tie that age to a historical event, as maybe a way of public education on this really old tree, or as a way to celebrate these large old-growth trees in the mountains.”
The historical events found on these medallions range from the first ever showing of Hamlet, to the day Ohio became the 17th state. The date on the medallion is the “germination date,” which is basically a tree’s birthday. And the number keeps track of the total amount of medallion trees — some online lists have shown the number go up to 132, while only 84 trees have been found thus far.
One common theme with the trees is that they’re all old-growth trees, which is generally defined as a tree that has reached a significant age and size with features that typically only develop over long periods of time. The oldest documented medallion tree’s estimated germination date is 1371, making it over 650 years old…