Northern Burr Oak – 333 Years Old – 192/365, Minneapolis, Minnesota, July 2010, photo © 2010 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
On Sunday I joined over 100 people in Riverside Park near the Franklin Avenue Bridge to pay tribute to the oldest known tree in Minneapolis. It is estimated that the Northern Burr Oak dates back to 1677. In the wake of the oak’s recent death, Minneapolis Parks and Recreation will be cutting it down in the Fall. We listened to sculptors, poets, neighborhood kids, and Cancer survivors who found solace in being near this tree. It felt to me like I was standing on hallowed ground. The tree has outlived all the humans who have ever set foot here. Imagine what she has seen.
In this photograph from 1941, the ancient Northern Burr Oak seems healthy and happy, her giant crown holding court over the Mississippi River Gorge. Here is an excerpt from documentation at the site of the gathering:
THE ANCIENT OAK TREE — Perhaps the oldest living thing in Minneapolis is the huge Northern Burr Oak (Quercus macrocarpa var. olivaeformia) that graces the west bank of the Mississippi in Riverside Park, about two blocks above the Franklin Avenue bridge, an enduring sentinel at the point where River Road West descends down into a most picturesque stretch of river gorge. Estimated by various botanists to be all the way from 150 to 700 years old, this valiant aborigine stands 58 feet tall, with a branch spread of 66 feet and a trunk girth of 14 feet at a point two feet above the ground. Symmetrically beautiful, this “first citizen” of Minneapolis, surviving the storms, drought, and fires that during the years have scourged the area of others of its kind, still remains a picture of physical strength and majestic beauty. Many are those who periodically come to Franklin Terrace to admire this grand old tree and to marvel at its great antiquity. In his little book, Riverside Reveries, published in 1928, Dr. Otto F. Schussler paints a beautiful word picture of this beloved old tree that “with a quiet dignity unsurpassed, and a perseverance unfaltering through the years continued to grow in size, in strength and ever-increasing beauty.”
-from the book Minneapolis Park System, 1941, by Theodore Wirth
As to the fate of the tree, opinions were mixed. Should it be cut down and turned into sculptures or pins? Should it remain as it stands, a living monument to all it has seen? Should the tree be felled and replaced with sapling Burr Oaks? What is the best way to honor the life and death of an ancient tree? Let it stand or let it fall.
After I returned home, I started to think about all the posts ybonesy and I have done about trees over the years. There is the giant cottonwood in the courtyard of the Mabel Dodge Luhan House, and the Lawrence Tree that Georgia O’Keeffe painted just outside of Taos, New Mexico. ybonesy has written about the cottonwood in her backyard and the carving of the Virgen de Guadalupe in a cottonwood in Albuquerque. She also wrote a piece about the art of Patrick Dougherty who uses the limbs, trunks, and canopies of trees to build his installations.
One year on my travels to Georgia, I visited a ginkgo in Augusta that was supposedly planted in 1791 for the visit of George Washington. And last year, for the first time, I stood under the giant pine where my paternal grandmother is buried. Our guest Linda Weissinger Lupowitz writes about New Mexico cottonwoods in What’s Happened To The Corrales Bosque? And in Fourteen Dozen Roses: The World As The Jungle It Is, Erin Robertson shares her poetry and explains how her tattoo of a ginkgo leaf makes her feel closer to her grandfather.
What do trees mean to you? Is there an oak you visit that brings you peace? Do you like to write under a grove of Ponderosa pines, sketch the bark of the ash in your front yard, run your fingers across the groove of a cottonwood’s skin. Have you lost a tree that was important to you. Are there trees that make you feel closer to home. Get out a fast writing pen and spiral notebook and get started on a Writing Practice — My Favorite Tree. Ten minutes, Go!
Right now it’s too depressing to write about. I did have 13 bur oaks. Now, not so many. Memories and firewood. (We can argue about bur vs burr some other time).
http://tinyurl.com/26wjznu
http://tinyurl.com/2v9lqw9
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Wow, Gunnar, I just checked out your links. When you say a “spinner” do you mean something like a dust devil? Or worse? A localed tornado? What happened exactly, and is that the norm for where you live?
QM, I appreciate that you went back and consolidated the posts we’ve done about trees. I know trees are important in my life, but it’s not until I sit back and reflect on my writings about them that I can see how they’ve affected me.
I was reminded, too, of a time about 15 years ago, QM, when a candlelight vigil was held at an ancient cottonwood that was coming down, the City was taking it down, due to approval to allow a controversial bridge that would cut through the area where the tree sat. Oh how we cried for that tree. Though sad, one can rationalize the death of a tree whose life has come to its natural end. Trees are living things, and like any living things they have a lifespan. But it is crazy-making when a tree has to give up its life early. Here is a photo I found of that tree from 1995:
The old oak burr tree is magnificent, QM. It touched so many lives, so many centuries. What a gift it was. Glad you were able to honor it.
And I look forward to writing about this topic.
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Tornadoes. They are not really common (or we’d have no houses to live in). This one didn’t set down, just clipped the trees on the way by. We lost a bunch of trees and limbs. This has been a particularly violent year. Global warming?
Burr Oak content: One of the branches that came down was about 24″ in diameter, as big as most trees. The tree is still standing there like a one-armed soldier, ready for another hundred years.
I’m always struck when a catastrophe like this happens, people say, “Thank God for protecting us.” My reaction tends to be, “Damn, God must really be angry, he’s trying to kill us all”.
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Wow, Gunnar, those tumbling oaks are huge. So sorry for your loss. Liz and I often speak of how we’d be so sad if we lost the ash in front of the deck, or the burr oaks that surround us on the sides and back. Did you lose your trees during the same storm around June 17, that hit Wadena, MN? That resulted in an EF-4 tornado that cut a quarter-mile-wide swath through the town. That tornado was over a mile wide and packed winds of up to 170 mph. What I remember the most about the coverage of the aftermath of Wadena is how all the trees were destroyed in the southwestern part of the city. It sounded like one of the graveyards lost all of their old growth trees. It’s just hard to imagine living your whole life with groups of trees, then having them completely disappear from sight.
I think it was around that same time when Liz and I had to take cover when tornado green hit the skies around here. We lost a huge limb on the ash but no trees. It hailed like crazy that night and the wind was downright scary. Again, sorry for your loss. It’s hard to know why these things happen. Totally random? Is there a bigger plan? I don’t know. I think bad things happen to good people all the time. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason half the time. Can’t make sense of it.
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ybonesy, we had a similar incident with an old growth tree that was sacred to the Native Americans being cut down to make way for a straightening of Highway 55 (if I remember correctly). I can’t remember the exact details. I just know it was very controversial. Some residents fought it but lost. It reminds me of different parts of Minneapolis and St. Paul where they have cut a line through whole and thriving neighborhoods to make way for I-35 or I-94. Usually those neighborhoods aren’t as wealthy as some that are not touched. It really makes you wonder about our values sometimes.
It was fun to go back and remember the tree posts and photos that we’ve posted. I don’t even think I captured all of them. There are a few more links I could add. I was thinking about this Writing Topic on the way home this evening. I was trying to imagine what it would be like to look across the horizon and see NO TREES. We take them for granted so much of the time. I have a lot of gratitude for the trees in my life. Over the July 4th Holiday, we hung our prayer flags for the Gulf of Mexico in a huge hackberry that sprawls out over our friends’ labyrinth in their front yard. That tree anchors the labyrinth. And so much more.
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No, but that storm cell spun off tornadoes that destroyed or severely damaged 200 homes in our county. Mine was two weeks later. The tree service was based in Wells to our west. They had tornadoes two days in a row, (quipped the man who early said tornadoes weren’t “common”). God was REALLY mad at them. ;o)
Another link:
http://tinyurl.com/2fud49p
(The house was destroyed.)
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QM, Thank you for the touching tribute to the Oak tree.
I will write about the Apricot tree in the back yard of my childhood home, in my practice.
We experienced strong winds a couple of weeks ago. Tony followed a “hunch” to move his truck the night before, and the next morning was so glad he did, as it would have been damaged by a large Cottonwood’s limb that blew down during the stormy night!
A friend broke his wrist that night, as he was trying to hang on to his dog’s leash while outside, and took a fall.
But…he didn’t let go of the leash, and both man and dog are mending! My great grandmother Biggs was killed in a tornado in Oklahoma. She had just gotten the rest of her family down the outdoor cellar stairs, when she was struck by a piece of wood.
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Amazing video, Gunnar. I can imagine the house was destroyed. That would be so scary.
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oliverowl, thank you. Love to read about your Apricot tree. I remember you talking about your great grandmother and standing on edge. That is just so sad. How did you find out about it? Was it a family story that was passed down from generation to generation? I hope you write that story down. It would be good memoir material. (Liz said that, too, that she hoped you wrote the story down!)
Good thing Tony moved his truck. I had something like that happen when I still lived in my apartment in Northeast. We had a big storm and I heard a giant cracking sound. I looked out the window to find the tall elm outside my 3rd story window had fallen over, right over my car and motorcycle. Amazingly, neither was damaged very much. They were covered with limbs and I had a few scratches on the Camry. The purple Rebel toughed it out though. Not a scratch on her!
I hope the oaks behind our house never fall over on to our roof. I worry about that sometimes on days like today when the winds are gusting and they are bending over the backyard. We’ve had volatile weather today. High dew points and humidity and it got up to 92. It was stifling outside today. A couple of semi’s were blown off the highway in parts of Minnesota. Also a few tornado touchdowns. Crazy weather!
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