Two-year-old Nolan Bursey ventures along a stretch of the High Line Canal Trail in Littleton, his excitement palpable as he approaches a peculiar tree.
The whimsical foliage grows taller, eventually towering over Nolan as he approaches the tree. Casting his gaze upward, Nolan attempts to climb the tree for the umpteenth time, drawn to the trinkets and tokens tucked within the crooks of its twin trunks.
Higher above the crevice, adorned with painted rocks, rubber duckies and baubles that were added over the years, carved wooden planks read, “The Imagination Tree,” a place “Where Dreams Begin!” The sign is just past the bark-embedded horse and swaying cowbell.
“It’s kind of this family tradition of sorts, of just always visiting the tree on our journeys,” said Ashley Bursey, Nolan’s mom. “I (love) the whole purpose of ‘The Imagination Tree,’ and (how) he is absorbed in the tree.”
Unbeknownst to the Bursey family, the towering greenery also serves as an unexpected link between Centennial residents Joan Bast and Joanie Bolton, two women who were so inspired by the tree that they created a children’s book and fulfilled a lifelong ambition.
“I came across the tree and I was like, ‘There has to be a story there,”’ said Bast. “There are a lot of cottonwood trees along the canal and yet they chose this tree in particular to put the sign up and that’s where I first came up with the idea.”
Inspired by the tree’s name, Bast’s book features a tree “rooted in the backyard” of a girl named Janie’s house.
“The tree is telling the story,” Bast said. “This story really is a story about a child’s connection to nature, and especially this tree.”
The book shows the tree’s perspective and how it connects with Janie through imagination, play and dreams. Bast was a kindergarten teacher for 25 years.
“This book in my mind has a lot of different levels,” Bast said. “I recently read at the old school I taught at in Littleton and it was interesting what the kindergarten and first-graders took away versus like second, third and fourth.”
She said it’s interesting to see how both children and adults engage differently with her book.
“From a parent’s or grandparent’s point of view, or whoever is reading to the children, I think there’s a lot there for them too, just about the importance of imagination and keeping dreams alive and connecting with nature,” Bast said.
Bast comes from a “family of storytellers,” and said it was always in the “back of (her) mind” to write a children’s book.
“It’s kind of about keeping your dreams alive and so the fact that this came true is really amazing to me,” Bast said.
Further proving the “magic” of the tree, Bast said the tree brought her the illustrator of the book, Bolton, who is the mother of one of Bast’s former students.
The two bumped into each other about a year ago while walking on the High Line Canal. As they reconnected, Bast told Bolton about the book she was working on.
“I knew she was a preschool teacher (but) I never realized she was an artist,” Bast said.
Later, Bolton drew a picture of the tree and sent it to Bast.
“I don’t know how to explain it but it was such the right illustration for the way the story is,” she said.
Bolton, a lifelong artist, said the book was a new avenue for expressing her artistic abilities.
“I worked with preschool children for several years doing art and I currently volunteer at a preschool working with them with art,” Bolton said. “I do a lot with my grandkids, and growing up my children I worked a lot with them with art.”
It was actually her play time with her grandchildren that inspired the images in the book.
“When I am with my grandkids, my favorite thing to do is draw or paint with them or whatever they feel like creating,” Bolton said.
Bast said it was about a yearlong process to put the book together, and after sending it to a few publishers, the two were able to get the book published by local company Living Springs Publishers, in Centennial.
“We’re their first children’s book,” Bast said. “So, it’s been really nice how that’s all come together and they were absolutely wonderful to work with.”
Bolton said the process of publication has been a “journey of learning” as they go.
“Working with Joan has just been a delight because we would get together and look at things together and make little changes together and share ideas,” Bolton said. “I feel like that whole process has been the most creative and exciting for me.”
The book came out in late February and Bast has read it at different schools and libraries. Students have been very engaged in the story, she said.
“I think the one that surprised me the most is they had so many questions about the writing process,” Bast said. “It was really fun to just talk back and forth about writing.”
As for the real tree, Bolton brings her grandchildren to it from time to time.
“It was fun to see their reaction to the tree,” she said. “They were so excited when they saw it on the trail and they wanted to climb it and get up as high as they could. Their enthusiasm and curiosity was very fun to see.”
Nolan’s visit to the real tree was the first time Bast ever saw a child actually interact with the Imagination Tree and she said it was such a special moment to witness.
Bast has written another story inspired by her brother, Steve, who is developmentally disabled but “a great whistler.”
“The story is about how some things come really easily toward us and how some things are a bit of a struggle, so it’s completely different,” Bast said.
Both Bolton and Bast said they are working toward publishing the next book and look forward to moving ahead with that.
“It’s a really neat story and that’s something I hope we can work on together for sure,” Bolton said.
The Imagination Tree is on the High Line Canal, about a mile from the intersection of Caley Avenue and Broadway in Littleton.