Posted on: February 7th, 2025 in Heritage Tree Details |
Juglans nigra – Black Walnut
This black walnut is a remnant of a larger grove, planted around 1865, that marks the farthest navigable point on the Coos River. Before S. Coos River Lane was built in the 1920s, people and goods unloaded atthis community landmark and popular meeting place. The Smith Farm Walnut is an example of how treeswere often used as important landmarks for navigation before the advent of electricity …
Posted on: February 6th, 2025 in Heritage Tree Audio Tours, Heritage Tree Details |
Picea sitchensis – Sitka spruce
This is the first tree to be designated an official Oregon Heritage Tree and was once the biggest tree in Oregon and the National Co-Champion Sitka Spruce. It germinated from a seed onthe forest floor around the time of the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215 and grew to its mature height about the time Christopher Columbus sailed to the new world. A legacy of …
Posted on: February 6th, 2025 in Heritage Tree Details |
Quercus garrayana
The Signature Oak is a symbol of the lasting importance of the Oregon white oak to the ecology and culture of the Willamette Valley. It is the oldest and largest tree in a grove of Oregon white oaks that predates settlement of the Willamette Valley by European immigrants and their descendants. The latest native inhabitants of the region were the Santiam group of the Kalapuyan tribe.
Native people in the …
Posted on: January 31st, 2025 in Heritage Tree Details |
Mixed Grove
Established by Adam R. Shipley in 1862, the grove surrounding the farmhouse across the meadow, exemplifies early settlers planting trees from their home states. Shipley, a leader in the pioneer community of Hazelia, served as State Grange Master and Regent for Oregon Agricultural College. The Cook Family has served as stewards of this impressive grove since James P. Cook purchased the farm from the Shipleys in 1900.
Tree Facts
Planted: 1860’s …
Posted on: January 31st, 2025 in Heritage Tree Details |
Pinus radiata – Monterey Pine
This Monterey pine was planted between 1906 and 1921 by the Simpson family as part of their extensive estate. Louis J. Simpson was a lumberman, shipbuilder, and founder of the city of North Bend. In 1942, Simpson sold his estate to Oregon, designating it as a park. This tree was recognized in 2002 as the largest of its species in the United States by the National …
Posted on: January 30th, 2025 in Heritage Tree Details |
Carya ovata – Hickory
This tree sits on property settled in 1868 by W.S. Frazier, the founder of Milton, Oregon. The Frazier family carried the hickory nuts along the Oregon Trail from their home in Texas. The nuts were planted shortly after their arrival.
Approx. height: 60′
Planted in: late 1860’s
Circumference: 6′ 6″
Dedicated on: April 4, 1998
Location: Frazier Farmstead Museum, 1403 Chestnut St., Milton-Freewater
Posted on: January 30th, 2025 in In Memoriam-Trees |
Populus trichocarpa – Black cottonwood
The Riding Whip Tree died in 2024. The stump can still be viewed at GeerCrest Farm along with the designated GeerCrest Orchard. The tree’s story and a link to more information about the farm are below.
In 1854, fifteen-year-old Florinda Geer stuck her black cottonwood riding switch in the ground after returning from a horse ride. The stripling took root and grew to become …
Posted on: January 30th, 2025 in Heritage Tree Details |
Pseudotsuga menziesii – Douglas fir
When most other Douglas fir was logged to create farmland, this fir remained as a landmark on the 640-acre Donation Land Claim of Robert Valentine Short. A land surveyor, R.V. Short surveyed claims throughout the northern Willamette Valley, and in 1850 created the first plat of Portland. He was a member of the first Oregon Constitutional Convention, the first Yamhill County surveyor, and a state legislator.
Tree …
Posted on: January 29th, 2025 in Heritage Tree Details |
Fagus sylvatica – Copper beech
This European copper beech tree has witnessed more than 100 years of urban development. In the 1890s, Joseph and Mary Watson planted this beech tree in front of their home in what was a quiet neighborhood on the edge of Portland. The Watson family had deep ties to Oregon’s iron and banking industries and Portland city politics. In the 1960s, Portland State University purchased the site …
Posted on: January 29th, 2025 in Heritage Tree Details |
Populus trichocarpa – Black cottonwood
This black cottonwood is prominent in photographs taken in 1900 and 1901 to document where the vote for a Provisional Government in Oregon took place. Francis X. Matthieu, the last living participant of the 1843 vote, is shown setting the location of this site in 1900 and unveiling the monument here in the ceremony of 1901. The area around the monument is believed to be the …
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