ANOTHER METHUSELAH
Proposal
Spurred on by historical precedents of Locative Media and advising from UC San Diego professor Brett Stalbaum, I will embark on an epic quest to find the world’s oldest living organism.
This organism is a Bristlecone Pine tree dating back to around 2832 B.C. At 4,838 years old, it is the oldest documented living organism on the planet. The tree is fittingly called Methuselah, sharing its namesake with the character in the Bible who lived to be 969 years old.
The rub. The exact location of the tree has been 
undisclosed to the public by the United States Forest Service to prevent acts of vandalism. Furthermore, there is no way to tell which tree is the Methuselah tree by appearance alone (Or rather, there is no way known by the general public). The forest service is keen on keeping the location under wraps to ensure the tree’s continued safety.
My investigation will start from the UC San Diego campus in La Jolla, California and hopefully end at the exact location where Methuselah currently resides in the White Mountains of California and Nevada.
The entire quest will be filmed, produced, and edited into a documentary.
The Search
The search was definitely a trying experience, more so than I had anticipated. After driving for eight hours through the desert in a 1987 Honda Civic with no air conditioning, I was faced with ten miles of off road terrain to traverse up and down again multiple times to get to Schulman Grove.
After finally reaching the Methuselah Walk Trail, I happily galloped down the path only to be met with the wall that is my lack of being in shape, not to mention the wall of not knowing which tree was the Methuselah. Lugging away at 40 pounds of equipment, I walked through the four and a half mile mountain trail as I occasionally took breaks to set up shop and film. Six hours later, I made it to the end, exhausted and down trodden.
To the right is a GPS recreated representation of my trip, starting from La Jolla and ending at the Methuselah Walk Trail, depicted by the loop at the very bottom of the image.
Post-Walk
The first thing that struck me post-walk is how thoroughly naive I was heading into the entire process. First, I thought I would be able to easily get some inside information about unique features or marks through research online and in the library. I was wrong. Secondly, I thought even without this information, I’d be able to show up to the Methuselah Grove, schmooze with the United States Forest Service workers and find out some hints of the location. I was wrong (to an extent – I did receive some general information from a ranger). Thirdly, I figured that even without any of the two previously mentioned resources, I’d be able to walk along the trail and, through deductive reasoning, I’d be able to pinpoint exactly which tree it was. I was wrong, again.
Alaina Salks, a ranger for the Inyo National Forest, works at the information center in front of the Methuselah Walk Trail. While she does not know the exact location of Methuselah herself, her direct superior knows it and has given her very broad hints to where its location might be. She passed this information onto me:
1) The oldest living trees in the forest are located in an area around 2-2.5 miles in the Methuselah Trail
2) The tree is completely ordinary. Upon looking at it, one would never believe it was the oldest living tree.
3) Only a small strip of bark is actually living on the tree.
4) It most likely has outside scarring due to the harsh weather conditions it experienced throughout the years.
Another Methuselah
Armed with this knowledge, I found a tree that would fit my criteria: it wasn’t a tall tree, it consisted mostly of dieback, it had a slim strip of living bark with pine needles, and it had some noticeable scarring on part of the tree. But then I found another Methuselah, and then another one, and then another, and another, and so forth and so on. I found upwards to 25 or so trees that fit my description. Below are the cream of the Methuselah crop:
My Methuselah
I realize that no matter how hard I analyze or do research on these trees, any of the previous trees could actually be the Methuselah Tree. However, I am pretty confident that one of the trees I have found is the true Methuselah.
So without further ado, here is the Methuselah Tree.
Why this tree?
1) It’s old.
It has a very, very slim strip of living bark on its back side. For the most part, it is dead bark with the exception of one living branch.
2) Its location.
It is located in the general region that Ranger Alaina Salks pointed as containing the oldest Bristlecone Pines.
3) Its scarring.
Its tree rings show signs of scarring due to an abnormally cold summer. Outside scarring most likely is apparent as well. This tree definitely has old scarring throughout its bark.
4) It’s ordinary.
Most of all, it is ordinary. It is next to other trees that are similar to it and for me, there is no real reason why I would pick this tree over any of the others. Simply put, that is why it is the Methuselah.
To follow in the U.S Forest Service’s footsteps, in order to protect the tree, I will not publish its coordinates here.
After all, this is my Methuselah Tree, and I don't want anyone messing with it.
The documentary:
For a more detailed description of this project's methodology: Click here.
RYAN VELASQUEZ
Ryan Velasquez is an artist based out of San Mateo, a beautiful city in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is currently pursuing a degree in Media with an emphasis in Computing in the Arts at the University of California San Diego, and hopes to pursue a graduate degree in Visual Effects afterwards.
His art background ranges from web design, to photography, to film, to motion graphics, to new media, to color by numbers, and much much more. In his spare time, he enjoys chatting over a steaming cup of hot cocoa and long walks on the beach.