According to the “Seagull Journal of Ozark Mountain History,” in the fall of 1796, a bull owned by one of the Ozarks early settlers had just finished drinking from the river. As he turned and walked away he felt an urge and, unbeknownst to him, provided the protection and nourishment for the birth of what was to become Branson’s Liberty Tree, as his “deposit” landed on top of an acorn that had fallen from a nearby Bur oak a few days earlier.
Thus blessed, the Liberty Tree sprouted, grew into maturity and reached old age. This transition however, was not without price as nature and man alike attacked. In addition to the normal incidents of nature, the Liberty Tree endured “progress” as the city of Branson was founded, developed, and redeveloped around it. In an Ole Seagull’s opinion that progress, particularly the asphalt roads being built over its roots, the cutting of its roots on more than one occasion, and the confinement of its root system by a sea wall turned, over the last 50 years or so, the once mighty oak into a sickly imitation of its former self.
In 1996 it was struck by lightning, splitting a large limb from its top, cracking its main trunk, and ripping out a 12-foot high section of bark near its base. Two weeks after the lightning strike Justine Gartner, the forestry field program supervisor for the Missouri Department of Conservation, inspected the tree. She determined that the “tree already in decline” was, “combined with internal rot in the branches,”…. “a serious, unpredictable, threat to any person or personal property left near the tree.”
At a well attended public meeting of the board of aldermen held, shortly after Gartner’s inspection, to determine what should be done with the tree, the aldermen tied three to three on whether to cut it down or to spend thousands of dollars to monitor and preserve it for as long as possible. The mayor’s vote broke the tie and the Liberty Tree lived to die another day.
It was small town America at its best; those who govern recognizing and respecting the concerns of the governed, sharing information with and seeking input from them, and having the integrity and courage to make their decisions in an open public session. Although the Ole Seagull would have voted to cut the tree down he sincerely appreciated the process and respected the results.
For the next eight years the Liberty Tree survived on the oak genus equivalent of being on “life support” but, in the end, even the mighty Liberty Tree could not survive both the normal incidents of nature, a bit of progress called Branson Landing, and the “deposit” made on it by Branson’s elected officials and some of its senior staff.
The death sentence for the Liberty Tree was announced when, along with the announcement of the Branson Landing project, Branson’s elected officials and the projects developers, from the very earliest stages, said words to the effect that they would try to keep the Liberty Tree. Could any reasonable person not recognize where the priority was and that the days of the Liberty Tree were numbered?
A weakened and continually weakening Liberty Tree was on “life support.” In the opinion of an Ole Seagull, the building of the Branson Landing project around the Liberty Tree and the priority that the project would receive over keeping it alive for as long as possible was the oak genus equivalent of pulling the plug on its life support system. It was just a matter of when the plug would be pulled.
Unfortunately, it was the manner in which the plug was pulled that showed small town America at its worst. Those who govern Branson, while recognizing the concerns of the governed did not respect those concerns enough to share information with them or have the integrity and courage to make their decisions in an open public session, even though they had the opportunity to do so at a public board of aldermen meeting on Feb. 14.
Instead, the actions of Branson elected officials and some senior staff members resulted in two “deposits.” One on the demise of the Liberty Tree, when, on Feb. 15, without public warning or announcement, its feeble shadow of its former mighty self was summarily bulldozed over and hauled away. The other was on the trust and faith of those that they are pledged to serve.
