Hommel Mangas
I rolled my office chair over to our west-facing window Wednesday evening around 7:30 p.m. after the sun was setting.
The hubby and I had worked in the gardens all day — watering, mowing and moving the logs and limbs of a recently downed black cherry tree that decided to split from the after-effect high winds of Hurricane Helene.
With a trunk circumference of approximately 130-inches having measured 4 1/2 feet up the tree trunk — and using a handy “Tree Age Calculator” tool from cliftonparkopenspaces.org/treecalculator — it estimated that the diameter was 41 inches with a black cherry growth factor of 5, assessing our tree was 207 years old.
The tree age calculator suggested our tree could have started growing in 1817 when James Monroe replaced James Madison as president; when our flag had 15 stars, which included the latest states Vermont and Kentucky. I began jumping to my own conclusions that maybe, just possibly, some little rogue squirrel buried a seed on Dec. 11, 1816, the day Indiana became a state when President James Madison signed the congressional resolution admitting it to the Union — the 19th state to join the United States.
But now, where she once stood in all her glory was an open space to the west.
I wondered what this old tree had seen in her lifetime:
Native Americans used the root for intestinal worms, burns, cold sores and other dermatological symptoms.
Horses and covered wagons passing by gathering the fruit.
Decades later forests and fields were opened up for more modern roads like the Ruel W. Steele Highway 37, and watching over the the I-69 project
Conveniently, I was also looking west that evening to try and spot a celestial visitor — a once-in-a-lifetime chance to view Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas, also known as Comet A3. It’s supposed to be visible through Oct. 24 but will dim as it moves farther from the sun and higher in the sky as the month goes on.
I took the advice to “look west after sunset,” just as astronomers suggested, but didn’t catch a glimpse. Comet A3 won’t enter the inner solar system for another 80,000 years, so I’ll try again tomorrow evening.
Meanwhile I have a blank 207-year-old canvas to fill. Here’s hoping the squirrels and birds do their seed-dropping.
Janet Hommel Mangas grew up on the east side of Greenwood. The Center Grove area resident and her husband are the parents of three daughters. Send comments to [email protected].
