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In California's White Mountains near the town of Big Pine are large stands of Bristlecone Pine located in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. The forest is located at an average elevation of 10,000 feet above sea level.
These trees are considered the oldest living things on earth. Tree ring dating for these ancient trees range from 4500 years ago to 5500 years ago. Radiocarbon dating of the pines are in close agreement with the tree ring dates. These pines grow at high elevation in somewhat dry conditions indicating that these mountains were in existence at the time these trees were seedlings. These mountains were in their present form in antediluvian times.
Study of the tree ring growth indicates that at times up to 20 years would pass between significant amounts of rainfall and that these dry alpine conditions have existed since the trees were seedlings. Comparison of tree ring patterns between living trees and dead trees show that some of the dead trees were seedlings before 3500 BCE.(5500 years ago)
Research has indicated that these trees may not be the oldest living thing on earth. In the California and Arizona deserts is the Creosote bush, some of which has been dated older than the Bristlecone Pines although the dates for the Creososte bush is not supported by all researchers. But the Bristlecone Pine is the easiest to date due to tree ring dating and radiocarbon dating techniques which are in close agreement.
There are other stands of these ancient trees in Utah and Nevada. Over the centuries these trees have looked down on the passage of human history. They were here when the human race became corrupt and saw the flood waters rise to the tops of the mountains. They saw the progress of humanity as it spread to colonize the world and today still stand at the lonely mountain tops as sentinels to history.