Dawn Redwood trees found here belong to a species known from fossils dating back 100 million years and once native to most of North America. The species was long thought extinct until living trees were discovered in a remote valley in central China. In 1947, the Arnold Arboretum sponsored an expedition there, and collected seeds were brought back to be shared with nurseries, some of which grew these trees. In Monteagle, native Tennessean Andrew Lytle, a literary figure who helped form the Agrarian writers, was once nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, lived in his ancestral log home, taught at the University of the South and Vanderbilt University, and later became a founding member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. In 1964, Lytle planted these trees in memory of his wife, Edna Baker Lytle.