The Senator grew in the wetlands of central Florida's lake country, its massive buttressed trunk anchored in saturated soil. As of 1993, arborists estimated the tree at approximately 3,500 years old, making it the oldest known bald cypress on Earth and the twelfth oldest tree of any species worldwide. At its peak the tree stood 165 feet tall, but a 1925 hurricane sheared off its crown, reducing it to roughly 125 feet. Even diminished, the Senator was enormous: its trunk measured about 17.5 feet in diameter at breast height and 47 feet in circumference at the base. Seminole County recognized its significance early. A plaque and iron fence were installed to protect the tree, though both were stolen by vandals in 1945 and never recovered. Big Tree Park grew up around the cypress, drawing hikers, school groups, and arborists from across the country.

The Senator did not stand alone. A short walk away in the same park grew another ancient bald cypress known as Lady Liberty, designated the Senator's companion tree. Estimated at roughly 2,000 years old, Lady Liberty is itself one of the oldest trees in the world. Smaller than the Senator but still impressive, she served as a living reminder of the swamp forest that once blanketed this stretch of Florida. After the Senator's destruction, Lady Liberty became the park's sole ancient sentinel, a quiet witness to two millennia of change. The two trees together once offered visitors something almost impossible to grasp: living organisms that predated the Roman Empire, growing in a suburban park bordered by strip malls and subdivisions.

On January 16, 2012, a passerby noticed flames shooting from the top of the Senator. Firefighters from Seminole County arrived quickly but found the massive trunk already engulfed, burning from the inside like an enormous chimney. The tree collapsed within minutes. What 3,500 years of storms, droughts, and development had not managed to destroy, a single fire finished in less than an hour. Investigators initially considered natural causes, but within weeks 26-year-old Sara Barnes was arrested. She had entered the park after hours with a friend, crawled into the Senator's large hollow interior, and lit materials to illuminate the space while she smoked methamphetamine. She left the fire smoldering. Following a plea agreement, Barnes received a suspended sentence on the original charges but was later sentenced to 30 months in prison for violating probation in 2016.

What remained of the Senator after the fire was a charred stump standing only a fraction of its former height. But the story did not end there. Seminole County closed Big Tree Park for nearly a year while officials considered how to memorialize the loss. In October 2013, a select group of artists and woodworkers were invited to create works from the Senator's charred remains: vases, pens, ornate flutes, and sculptures carved from wood that had been growing since the Bronze Age. When the park reopened on March 2, 2014, visitors found a renovated boardwalk, new memorial signage, and a playground piece shaped like a bald cypress stump. Most importantly, a young clone of the Senator had been planted near the playground, nicknamed "The Phoenix." The clone existed thanks to Marvin Buchanan, who had taken cuttings from the Senator's branches years earlier after the tree suffered wind damage. Another clone now grows at the park entrance. In the end, something of the Senator survived after all.