Excerpt from New York Magazine
Written by Jen Kirby
In what we hope is not at all a metaphor for American democracy, a 600-year-old New Jersey white oak that George Washington and Revolutionary War financier Marquis de Lafayette are rumored to have picnicked beneath is dead, and has officially been declared unsaveable. This white-oak tree, believed to one of the oldest — if not the oldest in the country — has rotted to the point of no return, and will have to come down next year.
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The New York Times did a sweet write-up about the arboreal landmark, whose caretakers have already had to shave off some of its twisted, decayed branches so they don’t come crashing down on the church and the cemetery below it. The stately white oak stands in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, and predates the relatively youthful Presbyterian Church founded beside it in 1717.