‘Icon of the American experiment’

Published 6:19 pm Thursday, October 16, 2008

Peter Lillback admits he had never heard of the Liberty Tree until he received a phone call nine years ago.

“I could tell with great excitement in his voice, ‘I have the wood of the last standing Liberty Tree that has just come down,’” said Lillback, president of the Providence Forum in Charlottesville, Va. “I said, ‘That’s really great. But what’s a Liberty Tree?’”

Lillback spoke about the Liberty Tree and its meaning at Dalton State College on Thursday to kick off “Georgia’s Liberty Tree Celebration.” Events continue today with school field trips to see the Liberty Tree at Dalton City Hall. On Saturday, there will be a festival at the Whitfield County Courthouse from 3 to 9 p.m. The festival wraps up on Sunday with a picnic at Dalton Green.

The original Liberty Tree was an elm that stood in Boston from 1646–1775. It served as a rallying point for a group of men known as the Sons of Liberty. They met under the tree to protest the Stamp Act the British Parliament imposed on the American colonies. In 1775, a group of British Loyalists cut the tree down and used it for firewood.

Other Liberty Trees were soon in use. The last of the 13 original Liberty Trees — one for each colony — was Maryland’s 400-year-old tulip poplar. That tree was damaged by Hurricane Floyd in September 1999. It was cut down and dumped in a landfill. But the tree was rescued and the national conservation group American Forests collected about 10,000 seeds from it. Of those thousands of seeds, only 14 grew into saplings.

The group planted a sapling in each of the original 13 colonies. The final sapling was planted at President George Washington’s home in Mount Vernon, Va. Dalton was selected as the site for Georgia’s tree. The tulip poplar sapling was planted at City Hall on Oct. 18, 2006, which marked the 225th anniversary of the end of the Revolutionary War.

“It is one of the greatest icons of the American experiment that we can possibly imagine,” Lillback said. “It’s been lost, by and large, from modern American life and we need to popularize it and make it something that everyone knows.”

According to its Web site, the Providence Forum is a “nonprofit Christian educational organization whose mission is to spread liberty, justice and prosperity among the nations by instructing individuals in a Biblical worldview.”

For information about the Dalton Liberty Tree and the festival, visit www.libertytreefestival.com.



“Georgia’s Liberty Tree Celebration” continues Friday with school field trips to Dalton City Hall to view the tulip poplar.

On Saturday, a street festival will be from 3 to 9:30 p.m. with arts and crafts demonstrations on King and Pentz streets. Festivities begin with a ceremony recognizing the importance of the Liberty Tree. Musicians will play guitars made from wood from America’s last Liberty Tree. At 4 p.m., there will be a naturalization ceremony for new citizens.

The 8th Regiment Band will perform at 5 p.m and the Roman Festival Band will perform at 7:15. Fireworks are scheduled for 8:15 p.m.

On Sunday, the festival will end with a picnic on Dalton Green from 1 to 3 p.m. The picnic is “bring your own,” but organizers say Let’s Eat In will provide boxed lunches for $6 each. Call (706) 529-5387 by Saturday to order.