DidDavid Ross

Plant thatTree'

Editor's Note : Standing in front of Evans Hall one day,the late Emil Kraettli, long-time secretary to the UniversityRegents, was asked if the stately old landmark elmgrowing there actually was planted by OU's firstpresident, David Ross Boyd . Kraettli thought for a fewmoments before replying, "Oh, f don't know why not."The fascination of the campus population with thepioneer president's tree-planting obsession has spawneddozens of oft-told tales, at least one scholarly paper-anda couple of other academic pursuits, all of whichcontributed to this article .

BY OMER GILLHAM

A few people thought David Ross Boyd wascrazy when he began planting saplings on atreeless University of Oklahoma campus

more than 100 years ago . "No trees have ever grownthere," said skeptical onlookers .

And when Boyd began offering free seedlings totownspeople, legend has it that one irate Normandruggist began circulating a petition to have Boydremoved from his post as OU's first president . Thepetition died when residents learned that Boyd wasusing his own money-not University funds-to buythe seeds and saplings .

The question often is asked if any of the tens ofthousands of trees cultivated by Boyd between 1892and 1908 still survive today at OU. The answer is :maybe one .

The sources ofthis historical information are OUbotany professors John Fletcher and Wayne Elisens .Fletcher and Elisens are modern-day Boyds, whowant to push the "botanical envelope" on the Normancampus . They want OU landscapers to plant thewidest possible variety oftrees, shrubs and plants to

beautify further theUniversity's appear-ance, which is becom-ing known throughoutthe region for colorfulgardens, fine shadetrees and green lawns .

"If they say it can'tbe grownhere, I at leastwant to try," Fletchersays .

Fletcher appears tobe getting his botani-cal wish with the re-cent dedication ofDavid Burr Park, justsouth of Huston Huf-fman Center . The parkfeatures 100 trees rep-resenting 21 varieties .Here OU landscape di-rector Randy Lacewelland his departmentare taking a chance ona yellowwood tree sincethe tree is not commonto the Norman area .Elisens and Fletcherare enthusiastic aboutthe choices for DavidBurr Park, however,and believe the yellow-wood will survive with the right care .

To educate the public on the campus tree population,Fletcher and Elisens put together a tree labeling and agingproject for academic year 1996-97 . The professors werejoined by students from the OU Botany Club and volunteersfrom Lacewell's department . OU's First Lady, Molly ShiBoren, with her interest in transforming the campus intoan arboretum ofsorts, helped Elisens with the tree-labelingproject . The tree markers cost about $900 while the label-ing labor was donated . Student volunteers included SamSmith, Briann Zimmerman, Michael Lackey and LarrySullivan .

Elisens and his crew discovered 44 varieties of trees onVan Vleet (south) Oval alone . They include Japanese blackpine, Siberian elm, honey locust, eastern red cedar, hack-berry, Austrian pine, bald cypress and various oaks . Justeast of Collings Hall stand two Chinese pistachio trees,planted after the Murrah Federal Building bombing inremembrance of an OU student and 167 others killed onApril 19, 1995 . Elisens plans to identify and label trees onParrington (north) Oval in the fall .

Meanwhile, Fletcher turned to old campus photographsto find locations that might reveal early tree placements byBoyd . Since Boyd left OU in 1908, Fletcher looked for treesthat were 89 years old or older . The old photographs weresomewhat helpful, but the professor discovered that many

did not have the detailneeded to detect treelife .

After studying thephotographs andspeaking with those fa-miliar with the earlycampus, Fletcher andthe students dusted offa Swedish tree boringtool and began coringvarious trees . The stu-dents tookcore samplesfrom trees located nearsome of OU's olderbuildings, includingEvans Hall, Old ScienceHall and OklahomaMemorial Union .

With a boring tool,an investigatorcan boreinto a tree's center andremove a core sampleof its rings withoutharming the tree . Thepencil-sized hole that isleft is plugged with corkto keep out insects anddebris. The slendertreecore sample is takento alaboratory where abrown stain is applied,

allowing researchers to better see and count the tree's rings .Fletcher found some trees too thick for the coring instru-

ment to reach its center. For these trees, the studentsobtained a 12-inch-long core sample, figured the averagenumber of rings per inch, then multiplied that number bythe radius of the tree .

Several towering sycamores between the OklahomaMemorial Union and Buchanan Hall proved to be only 64years old . A line ofgiant hackberries between Evans Halland the 1958 addition to Bizzell Memorial Library wereeven younger at 40 years old . An elm at the northwestcorner of Ellison Hall probably was planted in 1954, mak-ingit 43 years old . Just west ofBuchanan Hall, a mammothcottonwood, whose four-foot diameter trunk is hollow, isbelieved to be 50 years old . Fletcher notes cottonwoods are"quick growers" and can be deceiving when comparing sizewith age .

Fletcher had a feeling that the old elm centered in frontof Evans Hall might be a Boyd original, and he was right .Photographs from 1912 show the tree in early stages ofgrowth while Evans Hall was under construction . Othertrees pictured on Parrington Oval during that time appearto have been removed for building development or otherreasons, he says .

The Boyd elm has a41-inch-diametertrunk andisbetween70 and 80 feet tall . A core sampling places its age at 91 years

Botany professor John Fletcher, center, inspects the old Evans Hall elmtree that he believes was planted by David Ross Boyd, OU's first presi-dent . Also participants in the tree dating project are teaching assistantKathy Dodd, left, and graduate student Mary Beth Leigh.

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OmerGillhamKyle Wallick, left, and Kathy Dodd prepare to use aSwedish tree boring tool to determine the age of agigantic bur oak on the University's golf course . When atree is too thick for the boring tool to reach its center, thebotanists compute its age from its radius and thenumber of rings in a 12-inch sample core .

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In this 1916 plat of the OU campus, part of an annual report to theState Board of Education, administrators detailed every structure-and apparently every tree . Just eight years after his departure, DavidRoss Boyd's trees still thrived . (Note the tree designation directly infront of Administration-later Evans-Hall .)

The University is fortunate to have acouple currently in the president's house

who care as much about trees andbeautification as did David Ross Boyd .

The varied tree population of Van Vleet Oval providedthe ideal laboratory setting for Professor WayneElisens and his volunteers to begin their campustree labeling project .

old, which means it probablywas plantedin 1906, two years before Boyd leftNorman . Fletcher says the tree is par-tially hollow but continues to put offleaves and good shade .

The old elm has served under all ofOU's 13 presidents-most of whomofficed in Evans Hall-through bothWorld Wars and the landing on themoon. Countless demonstrations havetaken place under the elm's branches .Native American student StephenSelkirk staged a 58-day spiritual fastthere in summer 1994 to protest OU'shandling of a teepee desecration byfraternity members .

Fletcher does not know how muchlonger the elm will survive, but itseventual removal will not signal theend of the Boyd tree legacy . He isconfident that many of the trees thatencircle OU's academic buildings to-day are direct descendants of Boyd'seffort . And surely the sycamores andelms on Elm Avenue came from seed-lings put offfrom trees in Boyd's nurs-ery, a small forest situated first be-hind the president's house and thensouthwest of Evans Hall .

The University is fortunate to havea couple currently in the president'shouse who care as much about treesand beautification as did David RossBoyd, Fletcher says . David and MollyBoren "should be commended for theircommitment to these kinds of efforts .They are the driving force . I admiretheir enthusiasm and concern for thehealth of trees and plants ."

Ironically, Boyd is better knowntoday for bringing trees to Normanthan for his day job . From 1892 to1908, Boyd transformed a glorifiedprep school in a rented building intoa respectable institution with 36 de-partments that offered 244 under-graduate degrees and six graduateprograms .

Blake Gumprecht, an OU doctoralcandidate in geography, researchedextensively the planting of trees interritorial Norman ; he believes manyofthe anecdotal tales ofBoyd'sJohnnyAppleseed activities have assumedmythic proportions . For instance,

This massive bur oak tree on the University of Oklahoma JimmieAustin Golf Course probably predates the University, the stateand the Louisiana Purchase .

One Historic Tree D.R.Boyd Didn't Plant

Jurassic-size oak tree, which possibly had its beginning along apre-Norman creek bed in the late 1790s, still thrives in an area

now known as the University of Oklahoma Jimmie Austin GolfCourse .

Emeritus botany professor Elroy Rice says the bur oak is probably150-200 years old . That means the tree could have sprouted in theSpanish-owned Louisiana Territory during the presidency ofGeorgeWashington . The tree is six-and-a-halffeet in diameter and approxi-mately 70 feet tall . Plenty oftrunk is still visible when three personsstand shoulder-to-shoulder in front of the tree . Rice, who retiredfrom OU in 1981, ranks the tree as the second largest bur oak in thestate .

The OU golf course straddles a deep creek running through theSouth Campus . Dozens ofhuge cottonwoods, elms and cedars grownative along the creek bed, now flanked by irrigated fairways andputting greens . A second gigantic oak, possibly 125 years old, growsacross the 16"' fairway from the older tree .

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Reportedly the president gave awayhundreds of trees for free but with

one catch: If the tree died, therecipient paid for it.

OU's Van Vleet Oval is taking on arboretum trappings with theappearance of these identifying labels on each of the area's trees .

Gumprecht writes that Boydwas not the first tree advocateon the scene in Norman . Ed P . Ingle, founder and firsteditor of The Norman Transcript, preached beautificationand tree planting at least two years before Boyd's arrival .The community even had celebrated Arbor Day . But Boydtook the tree-planting efforts he found in Norman to a newlevel by transplanting what he knew about trees from hisearly days in Arkansas City, Kansas . Boyd succeededwhere others had failed because he selected hardy treesfrom Kansas andWisconsin nurseries and watered them byhand .

Commenting in a 1930 interview on tree planting effortsin Norman before his arrival, Boyd said : "What they haddone was to dig up some saplings from creek beds and stickthem down in shallow holes . As soon as the dry season ofthe year came, the trees they planted died ." Boyd was notimmune to failure, however . Oklahoma drought and plaguesof insects threatened his beautification enterprise .

While at OU, Boyd developed a campus nursery of40,000 trees . He planted 10,000 American elm and blacklocust (his favorite) during his first 18 months . Another2,000 trees went into the ground in 1898, followed by13,000 saplings one year later . In his spare time, hehelped W . T . Little plant 8,000 trees in Perry, Oklahoma .In 1903, Boyd ordered 6,500 Osage orange seedlings toform a hedge row around the athletic fields . When Boydwas not planting trees, he was selling them or givingthem away . Gumprecht writes that Boyd sold an esti-mated 15,000 trees in April 1903 and could have sold25,000 ifhe had had them . Reportedly the president gaveaway hundreds of trees for free but with one catch : If thetree died, the recipient paid for it .

Boyd's tree-planting obsession appears to be a holdover

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Arlington, Texas, senior Sam Smith volunteered along with otherBotany Club members and OU landscapers for ProfessorWayne Elisens' tree labeling project .

from a project he undertook in 1888 to beautify ArkansasCity, where he was superintendent of schools . At the time,land-hungry, soon-to-be Sooners were hanging aroundArkansas City for the 1889 Land Run . Boyd, sensing thestress of the extra people in town, convinced the citycouncil to pay the homesteaders $1 .50 a day for theirwagons to grade parks and to plant trees . "I find almostas much pleasure in the development of a tree as inenjoying it after it is grown," Boyd wrote in a 1903 memoto a territorial senator .

Boyd would find a great deal ofpleasure in OU's present-day landscaping efforts . Under Lacewell's direction, ap-proximately 150 trees are planted each year, as well as20,000 colorful mums on Van Vleet Oval and hundreds ofOU peonies, pansies and plugs of ornamental grass at theFormal Garden near Adams Hall . The year-around,campuswide project keeps 65 full-time and part-timegroundskeepers busy on 2,790 acres, including the Northand South Campus areas . With high-pressure hoses andautomated sprinkler systems, the landscapers have anedge on Boyd, who used a horse-drawn water tank and abucket to nourish his trees .How Boyd would have loved to get his hands on all these

resources . He could have rivaled Johnny Appleseed .

David Burr Parknspiration for the vast improvementin the Normancampus' appearance popularly is credited to Davidand Molly Boren's early-morning walks. The keen

eyes of the OU president and first lady do not missmuch . One area that puzzled the Borens was "BurrPark," a two-acre, unimproved piece ofground south ofHuston HuffmanPhysical Fitness CenteronAsp Street .When quizzed about the unmarked "park's" appar-

ent neglect, landscape and grounds manager RandyLacewell confessed that the area "lovingly referred toas `Burr Park"' did not exist inofficial University records . Itsorigin dated from a time of na-tionwide campus demonstra-tions, when more serious mat-ters overshadowed landscapedevelopment .

The year was 1968 . Newhigh-rise dormitories-Adams,Couch and Walker-had addeda new dimension (straight up)to University housing . Thecompression of the studentpopulation into such a smallarea was causing several con-cerns, amongthem the demandfor parking lots, which werespringing up-seemingly over-night-where grass once grew .The vice president for Univer-sity Community, who officed inWalker Tower, was not happy .

David A . Burr was a farmboy by birth and an avid gar-dener . He believed in the sooth- a,ing nature ofgreen spaces, andhe was determined to preserveareas of grass, trees and flow-ers in close proximity to student housing. The imme-diate object of his attention was the tract just east ofthe dormitories .

His stubborn defense ofthis greenbelt causedSoonerstudents to dub the area "Burr Park." Sometime later,unaware that the name originated in jest, a graphicartist included the designation on a redesigned campusmap. So the "park" remained long after Burr left hisUniversity Community post to become vice presidentfor development, then vice president for Universityaffairs, and even after his death in 1987 .On Boren's recommendation, the University Re-

gents gave David Burr Park its stamp oflegitimacy inApril 1996 . Working from Molly Boren's personalvision for the space and with the support from Housing

Director David Schrage, OU landscapers and physicalplant personnel went to work . Lacewell, a long-timefriend of Burr's, described the task as a labor of love,and the results reflect the sentiment .OU gardeners, supervised by Bobby Jackson, view

the park as a mini-arboretum with 21 different variet-ies represented in its 100 trees, most of them newlyplanted . Flower beds display 20 varieties of day lilies,six varieties of roses, cone flowers, Shasta daisies andJapanese anemone, with 1,000 bulbs to be added in the

fall . Crepe myrtle, hydrangea,juniper, holly, forsythia, spireaand burningbush completethepicture .

The park's centerpiece is agift of the Borens-a whitelattice Amish gazebo, comple-mentingthe white lattice fencethat screens the HustonHuffman parking lot on theeast . Several University com-munity couples-student andstaff-have chosen the gazebofor their weddings .

Standing in the shade ofsome established trees are pic-nic tables, often pressed intoservice as study sites by stu-dents seeking a quiet refuge .Ofthe seven benches through-out the park, one is a gift oftheBurr family, while fourare fromBurr's good friends, the Heipleand Patten families, ofNorman ; Ben and KarenBaker, of Bartlesville ; andJulian J . Rothbaum, of Tulsa .Two benches honor close Burr

colleagues, former Vice President for Student AffairsAnona Adair, a gift of President's Leadership ClassAlumni, and University of Oklahoma Foundation Ex-ecutive Director Ron D. Burton, a gift of his staff.

Formal dedication of David Burr Park on April 25proved the accuracy of weather forecasting-100 per-cent chance of rain-a record-testing, gully-washingday of spring precipitation . Undeterred, the good-natured crowd filled nearby Couch Cafeteria to capac-ity for the scheduled program-speeches, remem-brances, unveiling of the historical marker and a "pic-nic" lunch hosted by University Housing .

It takes more than a little inclement weather to faze aSooner-and besides, everyone knows that nothing isbetter for a park than a good, soaking rain.-CJB

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