It was once the largest American Elm in the world, and now thanks to vandals the remains of this giant are no more.
Jeremy told me about this magnificent tree he'd discovered while attending KSU in the early 00's. It was more than 300 years old and stood 100 feet tall with a canopy that spread nearly that far. Some years ago it was damaged by lightning, then in 1998 a couple of morons blew it up with a pipe bomb which eventually caused its death. Thankfully they were caught, and sadly their "punishment" was a few hours of community service. Tuesday it was discovered that over the weekend (most likely) someone had torched the stump, leaving only a pile of ashes beneath the arbor which was recently built to protect it.
I've heard someone at KSU had saved some of the branches of the tree after it was bombed, which were then cloned, ensuring this gargantuan tree would live on in a much smaller version(s). What would be fantastic is if someone at the University would plant one or more of the clones in this vicinity.
Does anyone out there have a good picture of the actual tree? I found a few on the internets but they are tiny as well as blurry. If you do, and could send them to us at stevelafrench at gmail dot com it would be greatly appreciated!
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