100 Oaks Project oaks – Bill & Cyndi list

Live oaks in this category were encountered and recorded during our travels to locate and document the Live Oak Society’s founding members and “Top 100”. The age and girth of the trees was apparent, which warranted a stop (and measurement, when possible).

Bacas Oak, near Edgard, LA

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Baccas oak diptich_8x17_BRNBacas Oak, West Bank of River Road, Hwy 18 near Edgard

This little known, but magnificent oak is located on Songy Court, on the west bank of the Mississippi River, behind the historic Bacas House which was built around 1840–1850. The property has been in the Bacas family since 1895 when Alcide Bacas purchased it from Willis Becnel. It’s likely that the oak was already mature when the Bacas house was built. The property is today part of the small community of Wallace, just downriver from Edgard, Louisiana.

The oak is approximately 25’ in circumference with a ropy twisting trunk and a huge crown that is nearly 200 feet wide. It has the classic upside-down bowl shape with long drooping limbs that reach to the ground, distinct to a live oak that grows away from competing trees.

This area along the west bank of the Mississippi River is part of the first German settlements along the Mississppi River, called the German Coast.  Wikipedia has a good description of the history of this area.

The Bacas Oak lost a major limb in late 2009, or early 2010. This image was made during the summer of 2010. I had searched for this tree for several years. Having only rough directions to go by, I was unable to locate it because it’s drooping limbs completely hid it’s trunk. From River Road it appeared to be a grove of oaks instead of a single tree. It was only after the tree lost a major limb, revealing almost a third of its interior limbs, that I was able to locate and photograph it. This view is from the south side of the tree, the opposite side from where the limb was lost.

Andrew Oak, Oak Alley Plantation

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Andrew oak afternoon light 10x8-Edit

The Andrew oak is one of the most distinctively shaped trees in the 200-plus year-old alley of oaks at Oak Alley Plantation. It is the #6 tree in the east row counting from the plantation home’s front porch. Its trunk has several large burls that create odd profiles when viewed from different angles. Its girth is approximately 28’ 5”.

The oak is named after Andrew Stewart, who with his wife Josephine were the last individuals to own the plantation and who undertook its adaptive restoration in 1925. Before Josephine’s death, 26 years after Andrew, Mrs. Stewart established the Oak Alley Foundation to preserve and protect the plantation home and its alley of historic oaks. The Foundation still manages the care of the alley, the plantation home and the property on which they’re located. Zeb Mayhew, grandnephew of the Stewarts, is administrative director of Oak Alley and owner of the Oak Alley Restaurant, gift shop and overnight B&B cottages.

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The plantation, located 3-4 miles upriver from Vacherie, Louisiana, was for many years thought to have been originally named Bon Sejour by Celina, Jacques Roman’s wife. But more recent archival evidence has show this is inaccurate.  The property was originally called “Section 7” by Valcour Aime, and was later called simply the Roman plantation. Roman built his plantation home on land he purchased from his brother-in-law and neighbor, Valcour Aime, who at the time was one of the wealthiest men in the South.

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The trees at Oak Alley are probably the most photographed group of oaks in the world.

Josephine Oak, Oak Alley Plantation

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Josephine Oak, view across alley, morning light

The Josephine oak, named after Mrs. Josephine Stewart, is the largest in the alley of 28 oaks at Oak Alley Plantation in Vacherie, LA.  This immense tree is approximately 31’ in circumference, more than 70’ tall, and with a crown spread of approximately 150’.

It is in the west row of 14 trees in the historic alley. Oddly, most people assume the oaks at Oak Alley were planted at the same time that the plantation home was built between 1836–1839. However, according to the Oak Alley Foundation historians, only the first four oaks closest to the house were planted around the time when the home was constructed. The remaining oaks in the allee’ were planted several years later after the land closest to the river was drained.  

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Josephine Oak view towards levee

All of the trees in the alley at Oak Alley are registered members of the Live Oak Society.

McDonogh Oak, City Park, New Orleans

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McDonogh Oak color 2The McDonogh Oak is the largest and oldest oak in New Orleans’ City Park. Along with the Anseman Oak and Suicide Oak, it is part of an ancient oak forest that was possibly hundreds of years old in 1718 when brothers Iberville and Bienville first scouted this area for a portage of bayous connecting the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Pontchartrain, and the Mississippi River. This natural system of waterways was a deciding factor for the brothers’ choice of this location to create the settlement that became New Orleans.

McDonough Oak adjCity Park was once part of the Jean Louis Allard Plantation, originally established in the 1770’s, and later purchased in 1845 by shipping magnate and philanthropist John McDonogh. Upon his death in 1850, McDonogh donated the land to the City of New Orleans and in 1854 a large section was designated as a city park. According to park records, in 1958, the National Park and Recreation Convention met in New Orleans and hosted a breakfast for 1,028 convention attendees under the massive canopy of the McDonogh Oak’s limbs.

In 1981, the ancient oak lost a major branch, causing severe damage. Extensive tree surgery was done and posts were added to help support the remaining main limbs.  In 2015, the McDonogh Oak’s circumference was more than 25 feet, and its crown spread more than 150 feet.

Etienne de Boré Oak (Tree of Life)

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Audubon Park – New Orleans, Louisiana

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Etienne de Boré oak – Audubon Park, New Orleans

In New Orleans, and especially the neighborhoods surrounding Audubon Park, this oak has been dubbed “The Tree of Life.” Its registered name with the Live Oak Society is the Etienne de Boré Oak. The land on which Audubon Park is located was at one time part of de Boré’s extensive sugarcane plantation.

Registration & Measurements – At just under 35 feet in circumference today, this oak was number 13 on Dr. Edwin Lewis Stephens’ list of 43 original inductee trees into the Live Oak Society and is also in the top 100 oldest surviving oaks on the Society’s member list.  Its girth when it was registered (as #21) was 23 feet 1 inch. The oak is located in Audubon Park on the down-river side of the Audubon Zoo, right over the fence from the giraffe habitat. It’s an enormous tree with a broad gnarly base of roots and a crown of limbs more than 160 feet wide.

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The Live Oak Society estimates that any oak with a girth of 17 feet in circumference (measured at 4 feet off the ground) is probably 100 years of age or older. This is a rough system of estimation developed by the Society’s founder, Dr. Stephens, which is fairly accurate, though soil, rain, and other habitat conditions can affect a tree’s long-term growth.  A live oak with a girth of more than 30 feet could be 300 years of age or more.  The ages of many of the Society’s oldest and largest trees are only rough guesses, and there’s been much-heated discussion among amateur arborists and other tree-folk over this issue.

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History

Jean Etienne de Boré is significant in history as the first French planter in Louisiana to successfully granulate sugarcane into sugar on a large scale, helping to make sugarcane the main crop over indigo and tobacco in antebellum Louisiana. He originally cultivated indigo (a highly valued crop and popular dye); but after several years of drought and insect damage, de Boré decide to gamble the last of his and his wife’s personal funds on growing sugarcane. In 1794, he secured a variety of Cuban sugarcane from Don Antonio Mendez (a Cuban of Spanish descent) who had successfully granulated a small amount of sugar in 1791 (a few barrels or hogsheads – approx. 1000 pounds per barrel) at Magnolia plantation in Saint Bernard Parish, downriver from New Orleans.  With the help of Mendez and a Cuban by the name of Antoine Morin who had experience with the sugar granulation process, de Boré succeeded in producing a crop of sugar on his plantation that he sold for $12,000 (quoted from a Times-Picayune story from January 13, 1895).

De Boré was also the first mayor of New Orleans, appointed to the position by Governor William C.C. Claiborne in 1803, the same year Louisiana was transferred from Spain to France.  He resigned in 1804 after New Orleans became an American colony through the Louisiana Purchase.

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Couple getting married under the limbs of the Etienne de Bore’ oak.

Audubon Park is home to several other member trees of the Live Oak Society. The George and Martha Washington oaks were among the original 43 inductee oaks in the Society along with the de Boré oak. George has passed on but Martha is still alive, in the rhino habitat of the Zoo. There are three other unnamed oaks spread across the Park’s grounds that are elder Society members.

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Remains of Martha Washington Oak in Audubon’s Rhino habitat