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Big Oak

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The Big Oak is a stately cherry bark oak tree that stood on campus for over 70 years.  Many alumni remember the Big Oak as a place to meet, to have gatherings and to take pictures.  Although UAM is one of the smallest campuses in the University of Arkansas system, it has the most land and the only School of Forestry and Natural Resources in the state.  The Big Oak was no doubt inspiration for lectures on forestry, as well.

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Big Oak in 1914

The Big Oak may have seen hundreds of years of life before the land it occupied became a school.  The children of William T. Wells, who owned the property as a farm before the family donated the land for the school, climbed the large tree and played under its branches.  The Big Oak was so significant to the campus that it was the subject of a number of photographs, including this one in 1914.  Students are posed under the great tree to show its expansive branches.

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Helen Guenter, who retired in 2015 after thirty-three years of service, remembers the Big Oak well.  In a June 15, 2009 interview, Ms. Guenter remarked, "I remember the morning in 1983 when I heard a very loud noise outside the library.  On investigating, we saw that a large limb of the Big Oak had crashed to the ground.  A few days later, the cherry bark oak, old and diseased, was cut down and a memorial service was held for the UAM landmark.  Among the many alumni who have fond memories of the Big Oak, is my mother, Thelma Fish Giessen, of the Class of 1934.  The class, the first four-year graduating class at UAM, placed a low stone fence around the tree as their gift to the campus."  Later, stone benches were also added.

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Big Oak in 1956

The Big Oak is pictured in front of the Memorial Classroom Building.  Alumni remember walking across campus under its branches.  The structure of the campus was influenced by the Big Oak.  Note the electrical powerlines situated to the left of the large oak to avoid a conflict with its limbs.  The two buildings behind it, the MCB built in the 1940s and the Student Union built in the 1950s, would have been placed far enough away from the tree to allow it to grow and for traffic flow.

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As a landmark, the Big Oak was featured on postcards to be sent home to friends and family.  At one time, the address was College Heights and the postal stamp was College Rural Station.

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Students used the Big Oak as a meeting place.  This 1970s era snapshot shows a group of students around the tree.  Student organizations gathered around the tree to take yearbook photos.  The tree was also known as a trysting place for young couples.

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Forestry Professor Dr. Timothy Ku nominated the Big Oak on campus as an Arkansas Champion Tree.  The Arkansas Forestry Commission certified the Big Oak as an Arkansas Champion Tree of the Cherry Bark Oak species on April 1, 1982.