Highway 99’s Palm and Pine markers to be moved for CA project. What’s the plan?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Caltrans to relocate Palm and Pine trees for Highway 99's widening project.
- New landmark will feature 32 trees, preserving original two on highway roadside.
- Construction delayed to fall 2026; tree removal needed before center divider work.
The historic Palm and the Pine landmark representing the unofficial divide between California’s north and south will be saved when the trees are removed from the center divider on Highway 99 for a large road widening project, state officials said.
The Canary Island Date palm representing Southern California and the Deodor cedar representing Northern California will become part of a new, expanded landmark planned to go up on the west side of the road in Madera. The two trees will be added to a collection of 15 trees of each kind representing the state’s geographic halves.
“There was so much concern, so much talk about these trees, that we definitely wanted to try to keep them somewhere,” said Larry Johnson, a spokesperson with Caltrans District 6 office.
The public outcry followed last year’s news that the trees would be removed for the widening of Highway 99 to six lanes from Avenue 7 to Avenue 12. The trees must be removed before construction begins, Johnson said, because some of the project’s initial work involves the center divider.
They were previously set to be removed this year. But construction was delayed and is now expected to begin in the fall of 2026, though Johnson said it’s possible the schedule could be pushed back again.
Johnson said “there was a lot of public outreach” for the trees. One call came from Madera Community College, which offered to create a space for the trees on its campus.
But Caltrans had other plans.
“The public likes them so much,” Johnson said. “The history of them goes way back to when they were thought to be the center of California. The best decision was just to relocate them and put them in that new area, relatively close to where they are now.”
Madera Community College asked for historic trees
Madera college was interested in the trees because of their historic and cultural significance, as well as the public interest in them.
Cory Burkarth, the college’s spokesperson, said in an email that the college supports Caltrans’ decision to keep the trees on the side of the road as part of the new landmark.
“We are happy that these two trees will be saved and will be available for motorists and tourists to continue to see and admire,” he said.
But the college remains open to providing a location for the trees if Caltrans’ plan changes, Burkarth said.
If the Palm and the Pine were to be relocated to the college campus, “we would work with other agencies and organizations to identify the best way to call attention to the trees and highlight their significance,” he said.
Burkarth said he has spoken to college employees, some lifelong Maderans and Fresnans, who were unaware of the story of the Palm and the Pine and its meaning.
“They’re iconic to people who know about them, and a complete mystery to people who have no clue about them,” he said. “So this is a fun opportunity to let people know about something unique and important right here in our community.”
History of the Palm and the Pine
Over the years, the trees have been on TV, in books and even in a country song by Danny O’Keefe about a young man’s relationship with an older woman. (She’d thrown away her crutches, but I knew that I’d need mine / In Northern California where the palm tree meets the pine.)
The landmark was featured on the TV show California’s Gold, hosted by Huell Howser, in 1995, when the trees inspired the late host to search for California’s geographic center. Caltrans told Howser that it could not find any records about the landmark’s origins on Highway 99, which was built in the 1920s
Some origin stories say the trees predate the construction of Highway 99 and could have been planted by university students or owners of a store that stood in that area before the roads did, as blogger Duane Hall wrote in 2010.
In an interview with The Bee last year, fourth-generation Madera rancher Jim Erickson, whose great-grandparents bought the land in that stretch of the highway in 1924, said his father, Stephen, always told him those trees were there before the highway.
“According to my father, that palm tree and pine tree was in the front of the house back then,” Erickson said. “In ‘48, they put the southbound lanes in and they moved my great-grandfather’s house back. It sits back in the orchard now.”
The pine tree fell over in 2005, but Caltrans planted a new one a few years later — amid “kind of a big uproar” calling for its replacement, Madera County Supervisor Robert Poythress told The Bee last year.
It was eventually discovered that California’s true geographic center is actually near North Fork in Madera County’s mountains.
This story was originally published August 11, 2025 at 11:57 AM with the headline "Highway 99’s Palm and Pine markers to be moved for CA project. What’s the plan?."
