The Lone Cypress
This lone Monterey cyprus overlooking Carmel Bay is estimated to be 273 years old.
If all goes according to plan, by the time you read this, I’ll be having breakfast in Pacific Grove with my daughter Melissa and my two-year-old granddaughter Louise, and then heading over to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We won’t be spending much time with the octopi because, when I asked Louise if she wanted to see an octopus, she said, “No, I don’t want to see the octopus. They’re scary for me.” I get it, Lou. They’re scary for us all.
So, I thought I’d write about something Monterey-ish for today, and there aren’t many more iconic symbols of Monterey than the Lone Cypress, a 273-year-old Monterey cypress that overlooks Carmel Bay.
The Lone Cypress is actually located in Pebble Beach, about halfway along the famous 17-Mile Drive. Pebble Beach is a sea-level town tucked between Pacific Grove and Carmel. Pebble Beach is perhaps most famous for its golf courses. Pacific Grove is, for me, most famous for two Airbnbs that used to be John Steinbeck’s house and writing studio. Carmel is famous for Doris Day and for being governed by Mayor Clint Eastwood from 1986 to 1988. Eastwood’s most famous act as mayor was vetoing an ice cream prohibition so people could once again eat an ice cream cone while walking down the street. I took advantage immediately. I still have my “Clint Eastwood for Mayor” campaign button and remember how funny we all thought we were, repeatedly saying, “Go ahead. Litter my beach.”
But back to the tree. I am interested in trees. I am interested in the Monterey cypress in particular. And I am especially interested in this Monterey cypress, which I’ve seen many times.
Instead of telling you about why the Monterey cypress is so special, I’m going to share with you an excerpt from my award-winning short story “Trees,” an abridged version of which, I’m excited to report, is being published in the New American Studies Journal later this month. I’ve redacted a little to avoid spoilers:
“Outside, the sun was low against Monterey Bay. The softening light turned the water into a shimmer and the trees into shadows. The Monterey pines are native to California’s Central Coast and to Mexico, too, like Matilde and her family before her. But the Monterey cypress is native only to the Central Coast of California …. These trees are strong and sturdy and evergreen—their leaves never die. They bear cones and the cones produce seeds and the seeds fly on the wind and reproduce wherever they might land. The Monterey cypress can live for three hundred years. … [T]hree hundred years from now, their descendants would still be in this place, seeding and reseeding and planting themselves firmly into the fertile earth.”
—Leanne Phillips, “Trees”
In fact, the Monterey cypress are only native to Cypress Point and Point Lobos on the Monterey Peninsula, so they’re rare indeed. Pebble Beach registered a drawing of the Lone Cypress as its trademark in 1919.
Scientists think the Lone Cypress was seeded around 1750 during the Spanish conquest of the Americas, making it 273 years old. However, they can’t say for sure. Cross-sectioning the tree to count its growth rings is too invasive and would be damaging to the tree. It’s also unclear how much longer it might live. The oldest known Monterey cypress, determined by cross-sectioning, lived to be 284 years old, so pessimists argue the Lone Cypress only has ten to twenty-five years left to live. But “[t]here are more things in Heaven and Earth … than are dreampt of in your philosophy.”1 We don’t know everything. I’m hopeful it will be around much longer.
William Shakespear, Hamlet.