“The Lone Tree”

Here on the Highway, in front of this marker, stood the ‘LONE TREE’ for more than two generations. It was planted, a mere cottonwood seedling, in the hole left by pulling out the original survey stake (surveyed in September 1869 by Levi P. Drake and crew) at the corner of the NE quarter of Section 20 Township 106 N Range 49 E, which was homesteaded by George Cameron in 1880. Mrs. Cameron planted the seedling in 1881, little thinking that this tiny seedling would grow into a stately tree, which would be a beacon signal in a blizzard to save the life of a teacher, Emma Clancy, and her little flock of twelve children; nor did she think its existence later would provoke a terrific controversy as to its preservation as a landmark when a paved highway came under the shelter of its wide-spreading branches. Emaciated by this concrete-created drought about its roots, causing the tree to die, this marker is dedicated to preserve the memory of a famous landmark.

Moody County, intersection of Highway 34 and old U.S. 77 (1988)