Ring by ring, majestic banyan tree in heart of fire-scorched Lahaina chronicles 150 years of history

By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN and JENNIFER McDERMOTT
Associated Press

For generations, the banyan tree along Lahaina town’s historic Front Street served as a gathering place. Its leafy branches unfurling majestically to give shade from the Hawaiian sun. By most accounts, the sprawling tree was the heart of the oceanside community — towering more than 60 feet and anchored by multiple trunks that span nearly an acre. Like the town itself, its very survival is now in question, its limbs scorched by a devastating fire that has wiped away generations of history. Earlier this April, the community celebrated its planting 150 years ago.