Work begins to memorialize the historic Merry Oak tree

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campus experience 1:34 Work begins to memorialize the historic Merry Oak tree

By:

Lee Friesland

4 Mar 2022 1210

According to Virginia Tech University Arborist Jamie King, the Merry Oak tree is centuries old and even predates the university itself. The tree was brought down due to a storm on May of 2020. Facilities workers came out on a cold wet morning to load the remains of the tree and transport it to Floyd, Virginia. The wood will be milled and given to an artist to repurpose for future Hokies to rediscover its past.

We lost the Merry tree in a storm several years ago, and we've been holding onto the wood so that we could do a special commemorative project for it. And today we are hauling the wood from where it's been stored out to a mill so that we can cut it up into pieces that can be used for some art projects. Of them will be a tree sculpture that's going to be over near the Solitude house. And then the other one is a bench that members that work at Virginia Tech are going to work with the milling experts and come up with a really nice piece that we'll be able to be where the Merry tree used to sit. The Merry tree is one of the, I like to say, it's had the longest documented history of anything on campus. And that's because the tree is about three centuries old. And it has known people, for it's entire life, essentially. It was here when are our great country was founded. It was here when Southwest Virginia was colonized. It was here when Virginia Tech became a university. It's important to celebrate that in a way that we can, we can tell that story for future generations. The tree may be gone now, but that site is still important. The wood from the tree can remain, and that way we can preserve that history that it witnessed. So future generations of Hokies can find out more about the past.