Originally written by Rick Hansen.
If you’ve read the news, the library’s pin oak has fallen. Damaging windstorms uprooted the towering treasure, though great care had been given to its protection. Come learn about the power of nature, the tradition of protecting our trees, and even the history of the State’s Charter Oak which fell to another weather-related event.
Trees to Treasure: “Pin Oak‘s top branches reach up, middle branches reach out and the lower branches hang down, almost like spokes of a wheel. ‘Pins’ are the short, stiff little twigs on the lower branches, used for nails in old-time barns. Leaves have pin-sharp points. Acorns are neat and tiny, neat as a pin.”
Trees of Note in Connecticut: “Charter Oak, Hartford. Connecticut’s most famous tree was the Charter Oak which was a white oak saved, according to tradition, from the original forest in 1636 at the request of the Indians. It stood in front of the Governor Wyllys Mansion in Hartford which was built in 1638 and was the finest house in Connecticut. The Charter of the Connecticut Colony, granted by King Charles II in 1662, is supposed to have been hidden in the oak by a patriot when Sire Edmund Andros, at the command of King James II, demanded the Charter in 1687. The Charter served Connecticut as a Constitution from 1662 to 1818 and conveyed to the Colony all the land ‘from the said Narragansett Bay on the East to the South Sea on the West.’ The tree blew over in a storm in 1856. the hole which concealed the Charter had then enlarged enough to hold twenty-five men, Pieces of the wood were made into gavels, picture frames, and even chairs, some of which stand on the Senate at the State Capitol.”
Trees to Remember in Greenwich, Connecticut: “Greenwich has a unique place in the Connecticut Botanical Society’s Notable Trees Project for a number of reasons […] more State Champion Big Trees have been reported from the town of Greenwich than from any other municipality in Connecticut.”
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