The Palm and the Pine, a blink-and-you'll-miss-it roadside landmark of mysterious origin, will be removed for the widening of Highway 99 near Madera... The road project set to begin this summer will widen about 8 miles of the freeway from four lanes to six, and the oleander-filled median strip will be reduced to a concrete barrier.
Larry Johnson told the Fresno Bee that though the two trees will have to be removed, there is a plan for a marker in the center of the road as well as 15 palm trees and 15 pines on the west shoulder... Nobody has been able to pin down exactly when the trees were put in the median or who decided to do it.
The late TV personality Huell Howser did a 1995 episode of his California's Gold series on the Palm and the Pine, and Caltrans' Bob Thomason told him that the agency's files shed no light on the trees' origin... It is believed they were there since at least the late 1920s, when the road south of Madera was widened and repaved.
#highway-expansion #california-landmarks #geographical-center #environmental-impact #historical-trees
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