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Day 17 & 18: Historic Trees
I am very excited about the tree I am planting today. It is an American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis). A lot of my excitement comes from the fact that I can pick up this tree with one hand. It wont be like the one I planted yesterday, a Cherrybark Oak (Quercus pagoda) that required about an hour of intense shovel and pick-axe action. Mostly it is my right shoulder that is looking forward to a nice relaxing day!
So that is the introspective selfish reason I am excited. This is a second thing that makes today's tree really cool is that it has played a significant role in the history of our country. On May 17, 1792 a Buttonwood Tree (another name for an American Sycamore) provided shade to 24 men who drafted the terms that formed the New York Stock Exchange. This came to be known as the Buttonwood Agreement. This agreement put into place the basic structure that has helped to create wealth (and ruin) for many in our country.
Though this famous tree is from NYC, anyone who grew up in Indiana should be familiar with some of our state's most famous trees:
- In the summer of 1816 the Indiana Constitution was written under an Elm Tree (known as the Constitutional Elm) in Corydon, Indiana. The tree's large size provided shade and cooler temperatures in the outdoor "office". Though the tree died in 1925 from Dutch Elm Disease, it's trunk is now preserved in a memorial.
- In 1681 Frenchman Rene Robert Cavalier Sieur de La Salle met under a Council Oak to sign two peace treaties with Miami, Illinois and Potawatomi chiefs. These treaties aligned these tribes with the French against the Iroquois and opened up the Mississippi for French exploration.
- In the 1870s residents of Deactur County noticed 5 saplings growing in the Northwest side of the Courthouse Clock Tower. No one knows how the trees got there or how they survived. Eventually 4 of the 5 trees were removed based on structural concerns, but since then there has always been a tree in the Clock tower.
The Indianapolis Children’s Museum was also honored as a recipient of an offspring from one of the world’s most famous trees. A sapling from the Horse Chestnut Tree that Anne Frank wrote about in her diary will be planted at the museum. Six months before her hideout was discovered, Anne Frank wrote the following passage in her diary about the tree, “When I looked outside right into the depth of nature and God, then I was happy, really happy.”
