On the Monteagle Sunday School Assembly in Monteagle stands a grove of some of the oldest known trees in the world.  The Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptosroboides) has been found in fossils dating back 100 million years ago and was once native to most of North America.  It was thought to be extinct until some trees were found growing in a remote valley in central China.  In 1947 the Arnold Arboretum sponsored an expedition to the area and the collected seeds were brought back to share with nurseries, some of which found their way to the McMinnville nursery industry.

Native Tennessean Andrew Lytle, a literary giant who helped form the famous Southern Agrarian Writers and was once nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, lived in his ancestral log home in Monteagle and taught for both the University of the South and Vanderbilt University.  In 1964 Lytle planted the Dawn Redwoods in memory of his wife, Edna Baker Lytle, in front of the Horton Dining Hall on the MSSA grounds.

The trees have become a living tribute to the accomplishments and genus of Andrew Lytle and are recognized within the community as unique and culturally significant.

Nominated by Susie Ries.