Project Appleseed

Several trees in the Sandia Mountain Wilderness east of Albuquerque are medallion trees.  A small tag commemorating an event which occurred in the approximate growth year of the tree is attached to the tree.  I found a tree with a medallion commemorating the Boston Massacre. The tree is a ponderosa pine located on the Three Gun Springs trail (TR 194) about 0.25 mi south of the Oso Pass junction.  The photos look south-westward.

The medallion:

The tree:

A landscape including the tree:

There are, as far as I know, 84 medallion trees in the Sandias.  I have a list of them.  The one with the earliest germination date is 1422 ("King Henry VI").

There's also a "Paul Revere's Ride" tree.  You can find that one off the South Crest Trail at 35°05.547'N 106°25.651'W.

The Boston Tea Party tree is at 35°05.461'N 106°25.626'W, about 560' south of Paul Revere's Ride tree.

The Stamp Act tree is at 35°07.004'N 106°23.830'W, off the Faulty Trail, just north of where upper faulty and lower faulty come together.

This image shows the Paul Revere's Ride (PRR-tree), Boston Tea Party (BTR-tree) and Stamp Act (StampAct) trees in relation to the south crest and faulty trails, with some trail markers.  Have fun hiking out there to find 'em.

And how can I have left this one out?!?

The Fourth of July tree (germination date 1776) is at 35°05.433'N 106°25.562'W.  It's just about 400' away from the Boston Tea Party tree off the south crest trail.





I popped in a marker for the Boston Massacre tree for reference.

now that's just AWESOME

Quote from: Yrisarri_blacksmith on December 22, 2025, 05:04:34 AMThere are, as far as I know, 84 medallion trees in the Sandias.  I have a list of them.  The one with the earliest germination date is 1422 ("King Henry VI").

There's also a "Paul Revere's Ride" tree.  You can find that one off the South Crest Trail at 35°05.547'N 106°25.651'W.

The Boston Tea Party tree is at 35°05.461'N 106°25.626'W, about 560' south of Paul Revere's Ride tree.

The Stamp Act tree is at 35°07.004'N 106°23.830'W, off the Faulty Trail, just north of where upper faulty and lower faulty come together.

This image shows the Paul Revere's Ride (PRR-tree), Boston Tea Party (BTR-tree) and Stamp Act (StampAct) trees in relation to the south crest and faulty trails, with some trail markers.  Have fun hiking out there to find 'em.

I've hiked by all three trees multiple times and never noticed.  The PRR tree appears to be not far off the S Crest trail.  I really like the S Crest - CCC - S Crest loop.

Thanks for sharing! 

- Jon

I am told that at least some of the medallions are gone, whether because the tree died and someone took the medallion from its fallen corpse  or worse, because people have just stolen them.   

I don't know if those three are still there, as I haven't hiked the south crest trail in years, but at least you know where to look.