LETTERS: HISTORY OF CYPRESS TREES

To the editor:

Concerning Joe Sullivan's column about a finch in a cypress tree:

About six miles southeast of Oaxaca on Mexican Highway 190 in the village of Santa Maria del Tule is the imposing arbol del tule (tule tree), a giant ahuehuete or Mexican cypress. Believed to be more than 2,000 years old, this colossal specimen (actually two trees on each side of a church) stands in the local churchyard and measures 150 feet both in height and around its base.

The Cape Girardeau trees are located in Courthouse Park, on the Naeter property by KFVS Hill along Highway 61 near the county parks and in the lowest portion of the drive behind Academic Hall on the Southeast Missouri State University campus.

They were brought back from Mexico by Mr. and Mrs. Fred Naeter, former publishers of the Southeast Missourian, and their chauffeur, Walter Wilson (now retired from the newspaper and living in Cape Girardeau) while on one of several trips to Mexico. Mary, their adopted daughter, was probably on the trip also.

DAN COTNER

Cape Girardeau