Heritage Tree Details Archives - Oregon Travel Information Council

Smith Farm Walnut

Posted on: May 4th, 2022 in Heritage Tree Details |

Tree Info:

Age: 157

Height: approx. 120′

Circumference: 14′ 8″

Average Crown Spread: approx. 140′

The walnut tree at the entrance to the historic George W. Smith Farm on S. Coos River Road in Coos Bay, Oregon, was originally planted by William D.L.F. Smith in 1865. Smith included the walnut in a grouping of four trees along with Chinese Chestnuts when the farmhouse was built. This tree has been an important community landmark for generations. …

PSU Copper Beech

Posted on: May 4th, 2022 in Heritage Tree Details |

Tree Facts:

Age: 125+

Date planted: Around 1890

Circumference: Approximately 19 ft

Height: Approximately 84 ft

Crown spread: Approximately 84 ft

When you walk down the campus of Portland State University (PSU), it’s hard not to notice the lone beech tree surrounded by the sides of the Millar Library. This tree has witnessed a lot of life in its 100+ year life span. The PSU Copper Beech was planted in the early 1890s at the home …

Williamson-Abbot Expedition Ponderosa

Posted on: May 2nd, 2022 in Heritage Tree Details |

Whispering Pines Horse Camp – Tree locaiton

In the 1850s, at the request of Congress, several expeditions were launched to survey possible railway routes to connect the Pacific Ocean with the Mississippi River. Under this directive, then Secretary of War Jefferson Davis (later president of the Confederacy), charged Lieutenants Robert Stockton Williamson and Henry Larcom Abbot with surveying a possible route between Fort Reading, California, and Portland, Oregon, either through …

Stein-Boozier Walnut Orchard

Posted on: August 2nd, 2021 in Heritage Tree Details |

Stein-Boozier Orchard

Stein-Boozier Barn

Stein-Boozier Orchard

Nut drying shed

This remnant English walnut orchard is an example of the thousands of acres of walnuts planted in western Oregon in the early 20th century when walnuts were heavily promoted as the perfect crop for high returns. However, wet fall weather and late harvests meant California was more competitive for holiday markets. After the 1962 Columbus Day Storm toppled many of the trees, walnuts never recovered, …

Nuu-k’wii-daa-naa-ye Sitka Spruce

Posted on: June 11th, 2021 in Heritage Tree Details |

This tree, located in Regatta Park in Lincoln City, is a remnant of an ancient coastal forest cared for by indigenous peoples since time immemorial. Oregon industries logged most of these giants at the turn of 20th century, reserving this tree to seed a new forest and witness the development of Lincoln City. In 2018, the community named the tree Nuu-k’wii-daa-naa~-ye’ —“Our Ancestor” in the local Siletz Dee-ni language—to honor …

Willamette River Cable Trees

Posted on: April 9th, 2020 in Heritage Tree Details |

For more than a century, loggers used rivers, especially the Willamette, to move millions of board feet in logs. Until ground transport became more economical in the 1970’s, men walked the logs, assembling huge rafts with long pike poles that tug boats pulled down the river. Cables wrapped around the trees along the bank tethered the rafts to shore while they waited for access to mills, sometimes for several months.
This …

GeerCrest Orchard

Posted on: April 18th, 2018 in Heritage Tree Details |

Location: GeerCrest Farm, Salem, Oregon
Species: Varied, including 24 pear trees, four plum trees, one apple, one Hawthorn tree, one butternut tree, and one hickory tree
Date Planted: approx. 1847
The year 1837 saw the beginnings of mass immigration to the Willamette Valley from the Eastern United States. The Willamette Valley, described to Americans in the East as an “Eden of the West,” had been shaped by millennia of active land management by …

Yang Madrone

Posted on: April 18th, 2018 in Heritage Tree Details |

Species: Pacific madrone (Arbutus menziesii)
Circumference: 23feet
Height: approx. 68 feet
Crown spread: 70 feet
Age: 65+ years
The large Pacific madrone tree overlooking the Yang house was designated a City of Corvallis Heritage Tree in 2016. It is said by the Corvallis City forester to be the largest madrone in Corvallis, and the second largest madrone in Benton County; the largest being in an inaccessible rural area.
The tree is located at a house designed …

McCall Magnolia

Posted on: April 18th, 2018 in Heritage Tree Details |

Species: Southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora)
Planted: 1890
Circumference: 90 inches
Height: approx. 50 feet
Crown spread: 50 feet

The McCall Magnolia was planted in 1890 in front of the renowned home of John M. and Mary Elizabeth McCall in memory of John’s daughter Elsie, who died in 1890. While a Southern Magnolia’s life span can be greater than 100 years, it is rare that this species can thrive in this climate for so many years. Recent …

Grove of the States

Posted on: March 30th, 2017 in Heritage Tree Details |

In 1967 Oregon Attorney General Robert Y. Thornton hosted the 61st annual conference of the National Association of Attorneys General in Portland. As part of a conference event, Thornton planned for the Grove of the States as an homage to First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, and her work fostering the 1965 Highway Beautification Act. The First Lady pushed hard for freeway right-of-ways filled with green landscaping and wildflowers instead of …