I was reading a book when I came upon a reference to the Arbre du Ténéré. It was a beautiful passage and I felt compelled to research this tree. I discovered a remarkable acacia tree so isolated that there were no other trees within a 250 mile radius from it. Its roots extended over a hundred feet below the earth’s surface to reach the water table. It is believed to have been part of a last group of trees that grew in this region before the land became the arid desert it is today. The last survivor that alone for decades–perhaps even alone for centuries.

I was profoundly saddened to discover that our world lost this remarkable tree in 1973 when a drunk truck driver crashed into the tree and knocked it down.