{"id":370,"date":"2020-05-01T00:20:37","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T04:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:10008\/?p=370"},"modified":"2021-09-19T20:45:34","modified_gmt":"2021-09-20T00:45:34","slug":"bald-cypress-and-chicagos-world-fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lancastercountytrees.org\/blog\/trees\/bald-cypress-and-chicagos-world-fair\/","title":{"rendered":"Bald Cypress and Chicago’s World Fair"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"White<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bald Cypress in Willow Street     <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Living Souvenirs from the White City<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Three Bald Cypress trees (Taxodium distichum)<\/em> stand tall on a 18th century farm in Willow Street, hundreds of miles north of their natural range.  Are they there merely on the whim of past property owners who wanted to grow an uncommon tree, or is there more to the story?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This trio of trees does indeed have an amazing backstory that is rooted in one of the all-time grand events in our nation\u2019s history.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Willow Street Trees<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In 2018, realtor David Stull wrote the present author about \u201ca few pine-type trees which have little nuts on their tips in the fall.”  The trees, he said, are \u201cskinny and very straight\u201d and grow near his 1760\u2019s farmhouse.  [Note 1]  \u201cThe rumor mill says these trees were brought home from the 1891 (sic) Chicago World\u2019s Fair where seedlings were given out by some southern coastal state.\u201d [9]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stull\u2019s trees turned out to be Bald Cypress whose story was confirmed by subsequent internet research.  Interestingly the \u201crumor mill\u201d was largely accurate:  Thousands of cypress seedlings were indeed given away as souvenirs to everyone who visited the Louisiana State Building at the 1893 Chicago World\u2019s Fair  [4,5].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bald6.jpg\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The owners of the Willow Street property at that time were John and Christiana Hershock [10], and presumably they visited the Fair during the summer of 1893.  Possibly the Hershocks were joined on their journey by friends or relatives, which would explain why there are three cypress trees on the Stull farm rather than just one; their traveling companions may have donated their own souvenir trees to the Hershocks for planting. [Note 2]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fair<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Willow Street trees are special because of their provenance. The 1893 Chicago World\u2019s Fair, also known as the World\u2019s Columbian Exposition, celebrated the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus\u2019s 1492 arrival in the New World.  The Fair was not only the largest ever in terms of acreage and number of exhibits, but it was also a watershed social and cultural event in our nation\u2019s history [1,3,13].   The Fair had profound impacts on architecture, the arts, anthropology, electricity and sanitation.  More broadly the Fair was critically important in the recognition of women\u2019s accomplishments, the rebuilding of Chicago\u2019s self-image after the devastating fire of 1871, and the ginning up of American industrial optimism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some 27-million people \u2014 40% of the nation\u2019s population at the time \u2014 attended the six-month Fair.  Attendees like Helen Keller, Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell enjoyed such novelties as the Ferris wheel, Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer and Juicy-Fruit Gum.  The Fair\u2019s main buildings were designed in neo-classical style, covered in white stucco, and built on a grand, overwhelming scale.  Thus did the Fair earn its nickname, The White City<\/em>  [3,7,13].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chicagofair\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In addition to exhibits by 46 countries, each state created its own pavilion.  Buildings meant to show off the major resources of each state were in many cases designed in a style that was characteristic of the state.  Louisiana\u2019s pavilion in particular was \u201cone of the most artistic constructions of all the state edifices as it was built in genuine southern architectural style. A veranda of Louisiana woods was its most attractive feature\u201d [6].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • \"Photo<\/figure><\/li>
  • \"Bald<\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    The Louisiana State Building had eight separate rooms [6].  These offered:  (1) exhibits on the old French Acadian colony that had migrated from Canada to the Bayou country; (2) relics of the French and Spanish occupation of Louisiana; (3) exhibits celebrating Louisiana schools for \u201cnegro children\u201d; (4) exhibits of the state\u2019s extensive rice and sugar industries; (5) a room with the richly carved antique furniture of a former Governor as well as wooden panels beautifully designed and carved by Louisiana women; (6) a Creole kitchen that served the southern delicacies for which Louisiana was noted; (7) a performance space for members of a Creole concert company; and (8) of most concern here, a room where souvenir seedlings of Louisiana\u2019s state tree were distributed.  [Note 3]  This, then, is where our Willow Street cypress trees came from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Carvell and Higinbotham<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    When forestry professor Kenneth Carvell moved from New England to Morgantown WV in 1953,  he immediately noticed that the city had five old Bald Cypress in its downtown area.  He also observed old Taxodium<\/em> in other West Virginia towns like Fairmont and Beckley.  As Carvell tells it:   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/div>\n\n\n\n
    \n
    \n

    Curious as to how the trees got there, at least 200 miles north of their natural range, I used an increment borer to determine their age because they all appeared of equal size.  My counts showed that they dated from the early 1890s.  After asking elderly Morgantowners how they got their cypress and learning nothing, I turned to reading old newspapers on microfilm. This was a time-consuming type of research, but I found my answer.  In 1893, there was a World\u2019s Fair in Chicago, the Columbian Exposition.  The railroads made it easy to attend because you could buy your ticket at their stations and, as a package deal, get your hotel reservations, transportation fee, and entrance fee to the fairgrounds. In one section of a 1893 newspaper was the sentence, \u201cI watched the crowd getting off the train from the World\u2019s Fair, each with their potted cypress clutched in their hand.\u201d  Evidently all who visited the Louisiana pavilion got a cypress to bring back to their hometown [4,5]. Thus did Carvell discover about the Morgantown trees in 1953 what the present author discovered (with David Shull\u2019s help) about the Willow Street trees 65 years later.<\/p>Kenneth Carvell <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    \n
    \"Carvell\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Thus did Carvell discover about the Morgantown trees in 1953 what the present author discovered (with David Shull\u2019s help) about the Willow Street trees 65 years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"Harlow<\/figure>
    \n

    Cypress seedlings from the 1893 Fair have grown happily in other places too, especially other parts of Illinois.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Harlow Niles Higinbotham (1838-1919) was a former Civil War soldier who became the Chicago Fair\u2019s president.  Without his talented and single-minded leadership, the Fair may never have happened, much less become the financial success that it was.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    After the Fair ended, Higinbotham used Bald Cypress seedlings and other trees from the Fair to establish a private arboretum on property that he owned in Joliet, Illinois [12].   This arboretum forms the heart of Joliet\u2019s Pilcher Park today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Lancaster\u2019s Other \u2018White City\u2019 Cypress<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    In the parking lot of Lancaster\u2019s Station House Restaurant on Fruitville Pike stands a magnificent Bald Cypress that thrives despite the impermeable pavement and polluting traffic that surround it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"Baldcypress<\/figure>
    \n

    Judging from its trunk circumference of 112 inches, this tree could be 125-130 years old and thus the right age to have come from the 1893 Chicago World\u2019s Fair.\u00a0 There\u2019s no proof of such provenance but this possibility seems quite likely, all things considered.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    A Final Thought<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Every single person who attended the 1893 World\u2019s Fair has, obviously, long since died.  Similarly, all but one or two of the 200 buildings of the Fair are now gone, most having perished in fires that turned the dreamlike fairgrounds into nightmarish infernos mere months after the Fair closed [3,13].  Yet cypress trees that were handed out at that Fair are still flourishing all over America. [Note 4]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    These trees, about 130 years old today, are still very young:\u00a0 Bald Cypress usually live around 600 years and have even been known to break 1,000 [Note 5].\u00a0 The Stull Bald Cypresses in Willow Street thus are members of an arboreal corps that, if protected, will carry the good will and enterprising spirit of the 1893 Chicago World\u2019s Fair centuries into the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Bald Cypress in Willow Street      Living Souvenirs from the White City Three Bald Cypress…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBald Cypress and Chicago's World Fair - Tree Treasures of Lancaster County<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lancastercountytrees.org\/blog\/trees\/bald-cypress-and-chicagos-world-fair\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bald Cypress and Chicago's World Fair - Tree Treasures of Lancaster County\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bald Cypress in Willow Street      Living Souvenirs from the White City Three Bald Cypress...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lancastercountytrees.org\/blog\/trees\/bald-cypress-and-chicagos-world-fair\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Tree Treasures of Lancaster County\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-05-01T04:20:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-09-20T00:45:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lancastercountytrees.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/White-City.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1010\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"721\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tconrad\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tconrad\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lancastercountytrees.org\/blog\/trees\/bald-cypress-and-chicagos-world-fair\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lancastercountytrees.org\/blog\/trees\/bald-cypress-and-chicagos-world-fair\/\",\"name\":\"Bald Cypress and Chicago's World Fair - 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