The Senator

As I was working on my computer last weekend, my husband came up to me and said "I want to get out of the house today.  Let's take the kids someplace interesting."  I was not very interested in going anywhere at the time.  I had a huge stack of papers to grade for school and the kids were happily content playing basketball outside.  But my husband was insistent.  He did not know where he wanted to go.  He just had to be outside since the weather was so nice.  So, he charged me with the job of figuring out where to go.  I reluctantly got on the computer to find someplace unique.  

I came across a place called "Big Tree Park" in Longwood that sounded perfect.  It was only a half hour away from us in Orlando.  We had never heard of it before but we decided to give it a try.  We quickly packed a picnic lunch, rounded up the kids and drove to the park.  The park itself was really small.  It had a few picnic tables and a fenced-off playground for the kids.  The real star of the park, however, was the gigantic tree named "The Senator."  It was huge!  The cypress tree had obviously been around for a very long time.  It even looked old.  It had a white tinge to its bark and the top of the tree looked rather gnarled.  The plaque next to the tree stated that the Senator was estimated to be 3500 years old.  

 I took this picture last Sunday (1/15/12)

Well, my family fell in love with this tree.  The kids had fun looking at it and getting their picture taken near the big tree.  My husband and I were in awe of how amazing this tree was.  We wondered about all the events that this tree has lived through.  The things that it must have seen!  It had been here when Christopher Columbus landed in the Bahamas.  It was already the "old guy on the block" during the American Revolution and Civil War.  But what really impressed me is that it had even been here when the Chinese worked on the Great Wall and when Rome was founded.  How amazing is that?  This tree was not just an inanimate object.  To me, it was a living creature.  I could almost sense his majestic soul emanating from his branches high above his neighboring trees. 

The next morning was Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  The kids and I had the day off, but we still woke up early anyway.  I was listening to the news while I was in the kitchen (those who live in Central Florida know exactly where I am going with this part of the story).  I heard the newscaster say "Big Tree Park" and a moment later, he said "fire."  I quickly ran to the television hoping that I had misheard that last word.  My hopes were in vain.  There, on the television, was the distinctive shape of the General in a fiery blaze.  I was stunned and heartbroken.  The Senator was the ONLY tree on fire in the forest.  All the other neighboring trees were untouched.  Firefighters were at the scene trying to put it out, but the tree was hollow, so that was making it difficult.  I was so sad when, an hour later, the news announced that it had officially fallen.  

What are the odds, that on a whim, my usually lazy family would have the idea to go visit a tree that they never heard of before and then the NEXT DAY, the tree burns down?  I am so thankful that we got a chance to see it though.  I did a little research on the amazing history of this tree and here is what I found:

The Senator was estimated to be 3500 years old.  It was the 5th oldest tree in the world.  The Indians used to use it as a landmark when they traveled.  It reached as tall as 165 feet (not as big as the Redwood trees, I know, but it is huge by Florida standards!)  The tree is named after Senator M.O. Overstreet who donated the land for the park.  Unfortunately, a hurricane knocked the top part down in 1925.  So, it was reduced to being 118 feet tall in the latter years of its life.  And it was still the tallest tree this side of the Mississippi River.  In 1929, former president Calvin Coolidge visited the tree.  It was located in a relatively swampy part of Florida, but during the Depression, the Works Progress Administration build a walkway so that admirers could easily get to the tree. 

On January 16, 2012 the tree caught on fire and fell down.  As of now, no one is sure why this happened.  Originally, the fire department thought it was deliberately set by someone, but they do not think that is the case now.  Some other possible theories are that lightning struck it two weeks ago and a smoldering ember finally ignited or that the friction from the swaying of the tree caused it to catch on fire.  Whatever the reason for the fire, it still left an irreplaceable hole in Florida.