Methuselah (sequoia tree)
Methuselah is a giant sequoia growing in the Mountain Home Grove of Mountain Home State Forest, in the Sierra Nevada of eastern California. It is the 28th largest giant sequoia in the world and might be 27th depending on how Ishi Giant fared after the Rough Fire in 2015. It is not the same as another Methuselah Tree in the White Mountains, which is a bristlecone pine.
The tree was named by Jesse Hoskins around 1884, who thought moss hanging from the bark looked like the beard of Methuselah, the biblical oldest man. Methuselah has a broken top and a very large base diameter, similar in size to the Boole Tree in the Converse Basin Grove.
In the 1950s it was about 225 feet tall (68.6 m). The top broke off before the 1980s, reducing its height to under 208 feet (63.4 m). A new leader grew at the top, and the height has increased again. In 1987 Wendell D. Flint collected measurements that estimate its volume, ignoring burns. In 2013 the height was measured at 230.6 feet (70.3 m).
Location coordinates: 36°14′25″N 118°40′49″W (Tulare County, California).
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 05:20 (CET).