We’re nearing the end of my original list of live oaks that I compiled with 30-plus-feet girth. In my search, I identified approximately 20 live oaks in the Live Oak Society registry that had a stated trunk circumference of 30 feet or more (at 4.5’ off the ground). A few of those were originally mis-measured by their owner/sponsors; so my current list (almost final list) now contains 14 oaks larger than 30 ft. in girth, six oaks with girths of more than 29 ft., and a few more that I’ve yet to locate with girths reportedly larger than 29 ft. (You can see my current list at the end of this blog entry.)

However, I fully suspect to add more oaks to this list in the coming year. In the process of working on this project, we’ve relocated back to Louisiana (I grew up here) to be better able to continue the 100 Oaks Project. Cyndi and I are now living in the old Constant family home outside of Thibodaux where we have a 25’-8” and a 21’-6” oak in the front yard. (The Constants were old family friends of my parents in Thibodaux, and I found their home for rent while photographing the oaks on their property).

We’ve also made new friends with several garden club groups across the state, including the Lafourche and Terrebonne parish garden clubs and master gardeners group (Cyndi was a master gardener in Texas and is now taking classes to become certified in Louisiana). The Lafourche and Terrebonne groups have been working hard to register old live oaks in their area—we applaud the great work they’ve done.

Now on to the trees…

One of the easiest 30-something oaks to locate is the Grosse Tete Oak. You can spot it on the north side of the I-10 overpass at the Highway 77 Grosse Tete / Rosedale exit. There are several lovely old oaks nearby on the grounds of the Iberville Parish Visitor Center, located on the LA. Hwy. 77 side of the bayou, right near the exit. The Grosse Tete Oak is just south of the Visitor Center.

This grand old tree is number 17 on the list of the 43 charter oaks in the Live Oak Society (or number 22 on their current online list). When listed in Dr. Stephen’s Louisiana Conservation Review article of 1934, it had a girth of 22 ft. 6 in. Our most recent measurement in September 2015 shows it with a girth of 30 ft. 2 in.

The Grosse Tete Oak’s original sponsor was Mrs. Lelia Barrow Mays. Both “Barrow” and “Mays” are family names that are significant in local history.

Grosse Tete is a small village with a current population of 647 (according to their website). Much of the village is spread along a two-mile stretch of businesses and homes on both sides of Bayou Grosse Tete (which means “Big Head” in French). Local legend (and the Grosse Tete website) states that the name came about from a big-headed Choctaw Indian who lived and hunted in the area when it was settled by French Acadians. Before the railroad, the bayou was the main route of transportation through this pastoral region of lush green pastures and sugarcane fields.

The Mays Oak (30′-11″) is number six (6) of the original 43 charter members of the Live Oak Society. It’s located just a short drive north on LA Hwy. 77 from Grosse Tete on the grounds of Live Oaks Plantation. The plantation home is on the east side of  Hwy. 77, facing Bayou Grosse Tete, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  It’s a private home and not open to the public.

According to the KnowLa website (an online encyclopedia of Louisiana sponsored by the Louisiana Endowment of the Humanities), Live Oaks Plantation was built in 1838 by Charles H. Dickinson. He and his 14-year-old bride, Anna Turner, moved to Louisiana from Tennessee in 1828, almost two dozen years after his father died in a duel with Andrew Jackson in 1806. With the help of slave artisans, he built the two and one-half story plantation house of pegged local cypress and bricks made from clay from the area.

The historic oak is located to the left of the plantation home (viewed from the highway) and next to an unusual brick tomb and brick church that was once used by plantation slaves.  Later the church served as a schoolhouse and Episcopal chapel (both structures can be seen in the color photo above, and the tomb can be seen in the black and white photo to the left).

The brick tomb contains iron caskets cast in the form of a human body. The Smithsonian Institution dated the caskets in the tomb to circa 1830.

For more information about Live Oaks Plantation, go to KnowLa.org  (a great resource on historic info about Louisiana) or look for Karen Kingsley’s book, Buildings of Louisiana published by Oxford University Press, 2003.

My current list of 30-something-size live oaks (as of 2016)
1. Seven Sisters Oak – Lewisburg / Mandeville; 39′-10″
2. Randall Oak – New Roads; 35′-8″
3. Edna Szymoniak Live Oak – LSU Hammond Research Station; 35′-6″
4. Lorenzo Dow Oak – near Pine Grove, LA; 35′- 8″
5. La Belle Colline Oak – Between Sunset and Carencro; 34′
6. The Martin Tree – Gonzales, LA, Ascension Parish; 34′
7. The Governor’s Oak – Baton Rouge; 33′-3″
8. Lastrapes Oak (Seven Brothers Oak) – Washington, LA; 32’-3″ (largest section)
9. Rebekah Oak – Breaux Bridge; 32′
10. Boudreaux Friendship Oak – Lafayette; 31’-10”
11. Lagarde Oak – Luling; 30′-11″
11. Mays Oak – Live Oaks Plantation, near Rosedale; 30′-11″
12. Blanchet Oak – Lafayette; 30′-7″
13. Grosse Tete Oak – Bayou Grosse Tete; 30′-2″
14. Etienne de Bore’ Oak – Audubon Park, NOLA; 30’ (also called the Tree of Life and the Monkey Hill Oak)

29 foot-plus oaks
15. Josephine A. Stewart Oak – Oak Alley Plantation; 29′-11″
16. Hudson Oak – Hudson Oaks home, Prairieville, LA; 29′-9″
17. Grenier Oak – above Thibodaux on Hwy. 1; 29’-?”
18. Stonaker or St. Maurice Oak – New Roads, LA; 29′-6″
19. St. John’s Cathedral Oak – Lafayette; 29’-6″
20. Mr. Mike Oak – Oaklawn Manor, near Franklin; 29′

Yet to locate and photograph
22. Ole Oakie – St. Martinville; 32’-2” (Kennison Ambrose, sponsor)
23. Grandpere Oak – Barataria Bayou, Jefferson Parish; reportedly 29’-4”
24. J. H. Lewis Oak – St. Louis Plantation, Whiteville, LA; 29’+

 

 

 

 

 

Old Oaks in Baton Rouge 

The Governor’s Oak (Live Oak Society registry #2364) was one of those oaks that made my job feel more like a detective’s than a photographer’s. The Society’s registry lists  the oak’s location as simply Baton Rouge.  And with a name like “Governor’s Oak,” I assumed it must be growing somewhere near the Governor’s mansion or at least the old state capitol grounds where I had found other LOS member oaks.

After several unsuccessful trips in search of this venerable oak, I finally contacted the folks from Baton Rouge Green, a non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring Baton Rouge area residents to conserve, plant and sustain local trees. They were able to unearth from their files a 1999 Sunday Advocate newspaper article featuring the Governor’s Oak and the efforts of several local families to save it from being removed to make way for  development.

The 34-plus foot girth oak grows off historic Highland Road near Interstate 10 on property that was being subdivided for home lots in 1999. The developer was planning to remove either the sprawling old oak or a smaller adjacent oak to more evenly split up the property parcels. Fortunately, three families stepped in and purchased two parcels of land on which the oaks grew to save both of them. Bill and Suzanne Terrell purchased one lot for their future home and together with Alvin and Carlissa Bargas and Bill and Kathy Lovell the three families bought the neighboring lot containing the two oaks.

When the Governor’s Oak was registered with the Live Oak Society by the three couples, it measured 33’-3”. My measurement in 2015 put it a bit closer to 35′, but my measurement was very rough because the trunk of the tree is now covered in poison ivy, which made for delicate and itchy measuring conditions. I still don’t know why the tree is named the “Governor’s Oak” but I’ll amend this post in the future if my research turns up the source.

While tracking down the Governor’s Oak, I discovered that the Highland Road area east and west of I-10 is rich with old and beautiful live oak specimens that have survived development. According to Wikipedia, “historic Highland Road was originally established as a supply road for the indigo and cotton plantations of the early settlers.”

Not far east along Highland Road from the Governor’s Oak, I located the Ole Glory Oak (LOS registry #4592).

This 30-something oak grows within a grove of old oaks on the property of John and Michelle Sparks. The oak’s sponsor is listed in the LOS registry as the Country Club of Louisiana Garden Club. Ole Glory Oak was originally registered with a girth of 28’-1”. My measurement placed it closer to 27’-8”, but the tree is situated on a slope, making it awkward to accurately identify a level “waist” near 4.5 ft. from the ground. The boxes in the black and white image above are bee hives—Mr. Sparks, who owns the property on which Ole Glory is located, is a beekeeper.

(Next post – How to measure live oaks.)

 

Ascension Parish and River Road toward Baton Rouge – Ascension Parish

This entry continues my historic oak exploration through the Ascension Parish area. While searching for 30-foot plus size trees, I located a few very large oaks with long and interesting histories. And though not quite in the 30-foot circumference category, they are still quite old and beautiful and are worth sharing as part of my longer documentation of the 100 oldest live oaks in Louisiana.

The Dr. Duffel Oak (#2487 on the Live Oak Society registry) is located on the grounds of Mulberry Grove Plantation, just a few miles above Donaldsonville on State Highway 405 (which is the west bank river road in this section of the Mississippi River).

 

The Dr. Duffel Oak and a younger tree, the Miss Hattie Oak (LOS #2485), are both located at Mulberry Grove and are sponsored by the Noel family, who own and live on the historic plantation grounds. Dr. Duffel is listed as 29’-5” in girth on the LOS registry; my measurement placed it at 26’-3”; Miss Hattie is listed at 26’-3”; my measurement was 24’-10”.

Mulberry Grove was built for Dr. Edward Duffel, a native of Virginia, but a direct descendant on his mother’s side of Acadians from Nova Scotia. Edward was educated at St. Mary’s College in Missouri and graduated from the medical school at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1833. In addition to being a doctor and a planter, Dr. Duffel was a member of the Louisiana state legislature, a delegate to the LA. state constitutional convention of 1852 and a delegate to the secessionist convention in 1861.

The Dr. Duffel Oak was planted either near the time that the plantation was constructed, around 1836, or possibly it was already growing when the plantation was built—making it approximately 180 to 200 years of age.

A bit further up Hwy. 405 toward White Castle, located on the property of Mr. J. M. Evans, is the Claiborne Plantation Oak, #2422 on the LOS registry and originally registered by Mrs. Oscar Evans. When registered, this oak was listed with a girth of 28’-8”; my measurement placed it at 26’-8”.  It’s a beautiful sprawling live oak growing in the back of the Evans’ home with views of acres of cow pastures.

According to the wonderful reference book, Along River Road, Past and Present on Louisiana’s Historic Byway, written by Mary Ann Sternberg and published by LSU Press, Claiborne Plantation was named for William C. C. Claiborne, Governor of the Orleans Territory in 1803 (land contained in the Louisiana Purchase). In 1811 Claiborne wrote to Julien Poydras that he had bought a plantation and would become a “plain, simple planter.” Though soon after he was elected as the first governor of the new state of Louisiana (1812), and in 1817 he was elected to the U.S. Senate, but died before taking office.

At 26 feet 8 inches in circumference, the Claiborne Plantation Oak is easily 205 years of age (as old as Claiborne’s purchase of the land) and quite possibly older.

(Next entry: The Governor’s Oak in Baton Rouge )