Arts & Entertainment Community
Two in Tow & On the Go | Tacoma’s Mountaineer Tree is a giant of the forest
Arts & Entertainment Sponsor
Arts & Entertainment stories are made possible in part by the Gig Harbor Film Festival, a proud sponsor of Gig Harbor Now.
We’re here to say hello to a tree. A very big tree. A rustic conifer, if you will. One that’s been standing tall and mighty since before Washington was a state — or even a territory. Locals know it as the Mountaineer Tree, an approximately 218-foot-tall living legend that’s called Tacoma home since the 1500s. And it lives in Point Defiance Park.
The Mountaineer Tree is a Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) with a massive trunk that’s more than huggable, spanning nearly 8 feet in diameter. It even made it into Tacoma’s 2023 Heritage Tree Program database for “trees of exemplary size, age, and/or significance.”
The Mountaineer Tree is so immense, according to the database, that even its upper branches are larger than entire trees growing nearby that are more than 20 years old.
FUN FACT: (You can see all the Heritage Trees on this interactive map)
The tree was named in 1949 for the Tacoma branch of The Mountaineers hiking club, the first group to formally recognize the giant fir with a sign highlighting its stats. Further research reveals that The Mountaineers not only installed the sign, but one of its members carved it by hand and others cleared an accessible path to the tree, essentially “uncovering” it for all to see.
Our experience
W
And since that bark — plus the tree it’s attached to, and the old-growth forest that surrounds them — is a living time capsule of sorts, we took our history pal Greg Spadoni on our visit. We thought we could “wow” him with a fancy tall tree and its cool history. But he took one glance at its 218-foot height and … said he’s seen bigger.
In fact, he told us that the dudes he worked for at Spadoni Bros. took down a taller tree 36 years ago when it was dangerously leaning over a roadway on the Key Peninsula. If Greg used hashtags, he would’ve thrown a #beentheredonethat our way. But he didn’t. He was actually a good sport about it. I mean, in the end, a cool tree is still a cool tree, amiright? And even someone who’s spent “25 years in road construction working … in every corner of the Gig Harbor and Key Peninsulas,” knew that.
Except … I now pose a question: Was this massive 1989 Tallest Tree Ever as impressive as the Mountaineer Tree in 2024? We think not, Mr. Spadoni. Because the hiking club’s tree is still standing today.
History
A standout achievement was then featured in the Mountaineers’ Dec. 15, 1949, issue for Tacoma and Seattle. It was the public unveiling of the remarkable 400-year-old Douglas fir in Point Defiance Park. Previously hidden from view, the tree gained attention due to the efforts of club member Carl Heaton and his push for conservation within the club, led by a newly formed committee.
That same year, according to the club’s monthly newsletter, “Mrs. Fred Corbit” was named as the person who carved the wooden sign by hand after joining a woodcarving class.
Here’s an excerpt from the newsletter:
The Mountaineer newsletter, Dec. 15, 1949. Article Excerpt. Source: mountaineers.org
“On the Five Mile Drive of Point Defiance Park there stands a Douglas Fir Tree is about 400 years old, 24 feet in circumference and 220 feet tall! heretofore not visible to the public. Due to the efforts of Carl Heaton it now draws hundreds of visitors and bears a handsomely hand carved plaque done by our own Ruth Corbit. Carl Heaton is a member of Tacoma’s newest committee, born this year, devoted to conservation, and ably chairmaned by Leo Gallagher.”
The sign, much like the tree itself, became a local icon and popular photo location.
Source: Parks Tacoma Facebook. The original sign is pictured at right.
In a June 12, 1955 article of The News Tribune, Carl Heaton made headlines again when his idea to open the “Big Tree Trail” at Point Defiance Park was officially dedicated. The Mountaineer Tree is also mentioned. The walk led “through a grove of 40 massive trees, each over 22 feet in circumference and at least 7 feet in diameter. Eagle Scouts from Troop 27, led by John Simac and Heaton, helped blaze the trail and planted hundreds of new Douglas firs. The well-known Mountaineer Tree is one of the highlighted stops along the route. No trees were cut during the trail’s creation, which offers a scenic 20-minute loop including a bridge over a gulch.”
The 1940s sign remained up until 1989, when another group installed a new sign for Arbor Day. The day’s festivities included nature walks, placing the new sign at the Mountaineer tree and the planting of a baby Douglas Fir in the park.
Source: therxfortravel.com. Second Mountaineer Tree sign, installed in 1989.
A third sign installment, the one that’s up today, debuted sometime in the last decade or so. It takes after the 1980s sign in that it shows the tree’s age in tree rings, and what was happening in pop culture history of each corresponding era.
The Mountaineer Tree remains one of the most accessible giants in the park. Nestled right on the edge of the park’s Five Mile Drive, which has since closed to vehicles due to cliff erosion, the scenic loop is still walkable, making the tree an easy stop for families and nature lovers alike.
FUN FACT: the Mountaineer Tree isn’t even the tallest in the park.
According to a 2019 Parks Tacoma Facebook post, a local arborist discovered another Douglas fir that edges out the Mountaineer Tree. It’s hidden just steps off an unmarked trail, with no sign or fanfare. That quiet mystery adds to the thrill of exploring Point Defiance’s extensive walking trail system for someone like me.
The most current sign
You never know what you’ll stumble on next — a bald eagle sighting, a madrona grove, or an even crazier tall tree quietly stretching toward the clouds.
Wyatt and a random cedar tree at Point Defiance Park.
The Mountaineer Tree, and its height-tastic friend off the unmarked trail, are relics of a pre-statehood Pacific Northwest once blanketed with towering conifers that are now incredibly rare to find. But at Point Defiance Park, massive firs, hemlocks, and red cedars share the land with huckleberry, salal, and sword ferns (2024 Gig Harbor Nature Bingo vocab for the win!). Bald eagles nest overhead. Cool bugs hide in decaying snags (that’s the cool-kid word for fallen trees).
So whether you’re walking the Big Tree Trail (established by Eagle Scouts in the 1950s) or the paved (car-free) route along Five Mile Drive, check out this trail map to plot your best route to the tree, which is labeled in the northeastern tip of Point Defiance Park between the Dalco Passage Viewpoint and Vashon Viewpoint. I’m still not sure how we got there, (ha), but we got street parking just after the turnout for Owen Beach. Afterward, we walked back to our car from the tree on the paved Outer Loop of Five Mile Drive.
Tonya Strickland is a Gig Harbor mom-of-two and longtime journalist. Now in the travel and family niche, her blog, Two in Tow & On the Go, was named among the 10 Seattle-Area Instagram Accounts to Follow by ParentMap magazine. Tonya and her husband Bowen moved to Gig Harbor from California with their two kids, Clara (11) and Wyatt (9) in 2021. Find them on Facebook for all the kid-friendly places in and around town.
@two.n.tow