Sacramento TV Crew Show Unique Perspective of Local Icon

The view of the palm and the pine on Highway 99 south of Madera as seen through the drone video camera of KCRA-TV in Sacramento. Photo from KCRA video story

In case you have not heard or read about the iconic palm and pine on California Highway 99 south of Madera, here is the story summary: several decades ago, the state transportation agency Caltrans placed a palm and pine tree in the median to mark the spot close to the geographic center of the state.

The pine represents where northern California begins.

The palm represents where the southern half starts.

The story has been told many times.

The phrase “palm meets the pine” is part of a country song, the subtitle of my book California Back Roads, and a popular part of local folklore.

The story was recently retold with a new twist by reporter John Bartell and videographer Tyler Horst from KCRA-TV in Sacramento.

John interviewed me for the story. Here’s the video link:

To see the KCRA-TV video report - click here

Videographer Tyler Horst prepares the drone camera to help tell the story on KCRA-TV. Photo: Steve Newvine

When John invited me to a spot in a vineyard on the east side of the palm and the pine, I headed to Madera expecting to offer a few bits of history and perspective on the popular roadside attraction.

I was really impressed with the tools today’s television news crews have to tell their stories.

Full disclosure: I worked in television news for fifteen years, leaving it all behind in the mid 1990’s.

A lot has changed. John’s feature reports are called Bartell’s Back Roads, and air regularly on Sacramento television.

This particular feature was delayed from airing throughout the summer due to the heavy coverage of COVID and the California wildfires.

My fellow storytellers John Bartell and Tyler Horst at the site of the palm and the pine in Madera. Photo: Steve Newvine

After completing our interview and walking around the area for cover shots for use in editing the report, Tyler turned his attention to the station’s video drone camera.

Within minutes, he had the drone up in the air gathering impressive video of the scene.

Drone cameras are used in many television stations today. I first saw them in use during the earthquake aftermath in Napa County in 2014.

Drones got a heavy workout in recent years to help document the California wildfires that have burned hundreds of thousands of acres.

The Sacramento news drone showed the palm and pine on Highway 99, and then showed the actual geographic center of the state in North Fork about forty miles to the east.

“Scientific geological markers were placed here (North Fork) back in 1998,“ John reported in his narration of the feature.

“And unlike the palm and the pines on Highway 99, you can actually stand at the center of the state.”

John Bartell interviews Steve Newvine near the site of the palm and the pine in Madera County. Photo from KCRA video story.

While I was impressed with the storytelling techniques used by the pair in the piece, I was pleasantly surprised by a small clip of video that was not shot by Tyler.

To emphasize the somewhat ambiguous history of how the original trees came to be planted in the highway median, the KCRA crew found video from Huell Howser’s California Gold program from about a quarter of a century ago.

The late Huell Howser, interviewed a Caltrans spokesman in the mid 1990’s about the palm and the pine.

In that video clip, Huell asks a Caltrans spokesman about the origin of the roadside attraction only to be told by the spokesman that no one really knows.

Huell passed away in 2013, but his programs are still seen on public television. I was proud to share a little space in the video story with this charismatic storyteller.

I offer a thank you to Huell Howser for being among the first to bring the palm and the pine to television back in the 1990s. And thank you to John and Tyler, fellow California storytellers, for taking our local claim to fame to new heights.