Lee Ann (Sacred Origin), 2-11-2019

My dear friend ( 83 yrs old ) who loves my passion for figs made a drive out to a wild very old fig tree that she has harvested from for more than 40 years. She said at the time she first discovered it and took figs it was huge. Recently she estimated that the tree might be 40 plus feet wide on the canopy. She went out yesterday to see if it had survived the Carr Fire. She brought back cuttings. I plan to make this available in the near future and of course upon getting some fruit to test and try, will report on that as well. I would image that this tree started as a seedling around the time of construction of Whiskeytown Dam and Powerhouse in the early part of the Century or by miners.

This is what she wrote up.

"Upon moving to Redding in 1973, many trips were made to Whiskeytown Lake. The hot summer days brought out the lush green of the area. There was a huge very old fig tree on the banks of the lake and bore large green figs with a pink center. Over the next 45 years, many trips were made to the lake to pick the delicious figs from the old tree. They make excellent dried fruit, jams and just plain eating. In 2018, the Carr fire started about a mile from the fig tree. It was a large wildfire that burned in Shasta and Trinity Counties in California It burned 229,651 acres and 1077 homes. Eight people lost their lives. The road around the lake was recently opened. A trip to the fig tree found the fire had burned to within about 20' of the old tree. The fire fighters had lopped many branches off the tree, but left several branches that we were able to salvage, in hopes of saving the offspring of this precious old tree. We call it the Carr Fig, after the fire that almost killed it."- Velda Crotty