Uri's Blog Notes from 44.483N, -92.261W, planet Earth

R.I.P. Ancient Sentinel

In the early 1900s, foresters from all around the country came to Minneapolis to see an ancient and immense bur oak tree - Quercus macrocarpa - growing in Riverside Park. The foresters were amazed with its beauty and estimated it was more than 500 years old (some said it could be as old as 700). Before its decline began, the tree stood from 60 to 80 feet high and its crown spread more than 70 feet.

Modern calculations put its age somewhere around 333 years. But they admit that we will never really know, because there is no core to measure the rings [and of course foresters of 100 years ago who actually saw the tree at its peak couldn't possibly be as smart as we are today, so why would we accept their calculations!]

Located two blocks north of the Franklin Avenue bridge and facing the 900 block of Franklin Terrace, the bur oak is - or was - Minneapolis's oldest surviving oak tree. The magnificent bur oak did not leaf out this spring after being in steep decline for many years.

Theodore Wirth wrote in his 1941 book, Minneapolis Park System
"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 1928, Dr. Otto F. Schussler wrote in his little book Riverside Reveries of this beloved old tree: "In a very true sense this ancient tree is the monarch of all! What a store of pleasant memories must have found lodgment...and one crosses it feeling that the old tree is a calm and gracious element. We visit him on our after supper strolls nightly, and more and more a fitting appreciation of his splendid bearing and kingly presence grows upon me."

Here is the tree today, half its height with all but a few branches of its crown lost in recent years. Its hollow core can accommodate two adults. It will be taken down in the fall, a young bur oak planted in its place, its base mulched with chips from its magnificent predecessor.