Medallion Trees of the Sandias

Historical perspective:

Have you seen them? By some counts, there have been as many as 88 documented medallion trees, maybe even twice as many more once, scattered along the trails throughout the Sandia Mountains like secret little jewels of history.

At present, the locations of 84 medallion trees are known.

Each medallion – an aluminum or brass or steel washer about 1½ to 2 inches in diameter – is screwed into the tree over the hole where a core sample was taken to determine the tree’s age. A historic event that corresponds with the germination date, or GD, is stamped on the medallion.