As my mother, Marge Short, and I walk our way down the sidewalks to see the only living Sequoia tree in downtown Bellevue, I am aware of all the new construction, orange traffic cones and condominiums. At first I do not see the Big Tree. My mother points, “Across the street on the corner.”
When I finally focus on the huge evergreen, I am in awe. It is standing there stately, solitary, and pristine. It is surrounded by an assault of concrete buildings, chain-link fences, and buzzing traffic. It’s no wonder my mom and her friends, who reside at the Pacific Regent Bellevue, call their home “Crane City.”
The Sequoia tree is a magnificent sight with its widespread branches and stunning height. My mother and I count 20 stories up (approximately 200 feet tall) the nearby Hyatt Hotel. I see and feel the huge, bare trunk that sustains the tree. With my measuring tape I circle the circumference of the trunk. It measures 19 feet; about 5 people holding hands around it.
While I am observing the tree I notice wires going around the trunk and ropes going up the tree. My mother informs me that these are for the Christmas lights. And every December the wires for the lights are loosened as the tree trunk grows. My mother describes the Bellevue Sequoia as a “beacon of light” for the Christmas season.
The famous conifer is located on the corner of 106th Avenue Northeast and Northeast Eighth Street, on the property of Washington Mutual Bank (now Chase). We learned from the bank employee that the tree has been well cared for by the bank for many years. It is so special that during the 1993 remodel of WaMu, an arborist from the University of Washington Arboretum was sent to make sure the unique tree would suffer no harm. Today the Sequoia is in “mint condition.” According to a woman at the bank, the tree is over 100 years old.
Mom and I learned from the Internet that the Sequoias rank among the largest and oldest living things on Earth. There are only five or six of these types of Evergreens in Seattle. The rest are found chiefly in California. The name Sequoia comes from a Cherokee Indian, whose tribe was vital in the trees’ early development.
As I continue to look and learn about this giant tree with its cone-shaped top, I am struck by its durability, serenity, and beauty. It presides in the midst of this “concrete kingdom” that is downtown Bellevue.
Soon the Big Tree will be adorned with Christmas lights. I invite people to come to the center of Bellevue to see the Sequoia’s bounty. It is the one true thing – evergreen and everlasting.
Jean Stansbury lives in Bellevue.
