A thornless honey locust tree in Snowflake has been designated as one of 11 centennial witness trees in the state.
James William “Bill” and Pearl Gibson arrived in Snowflake between 1880 and 1885, and in 1905 they began building their homestead, though the property was first recorded under their name in 1903.
Two thornless honey locust trees were planted in front of the property located at 264 N. Second West.
The property was handed down to their son Frank and to his son Rex, who was born in 1918 and is the fa-ther of Jean Simmons, who presently lives there.
In a Feb. 16, 2011, interview conducted by Snowflake Parks Superintendent/Town Arborist Bruce Migh-ton, Simmons said she remembered her father telling stories about an old swing between the two trees in the front of the house that were planted by his Grandpa Bill when they first settled on the property.
Mighton said that this established the date of planting around 1903 to 1905, making the trees around 25 years old when Rex was swinging between them.
Jean’s husband Orren said during a May 2, interview that one tree had been cut down and they still have the large piece of the tree that had grown around a pipe.
Mighton estimates the remaining tree to be 106 to 108 years old, old enough to have been living when Ari-zona became a state on Feb. 14, 1919.
The Arizona Centennial Foundation was seeking “witness trees” that were dedicated as part of Arizona’s Centennial and verified to have witnessed Arizona’s statehood. The Gibson Homestead thornless honey locust was one of 11 chosen.
Mighton and Ron Kimball of Tree Technologies in Lakeside took measurements that show the tree is 75’ tall, has a 71’ spread and is 4¼’ in diameter at breast height.
“That’s a pretty big tree,” Mighton told the Snowflake Town Council as he made a presentation at the April 24 council meeting.
Mighton spoke with Ruby Gibson before she passed away and noted, “She filled me in a little bit on the history.” She said there were two trees and they got so big that one had to be cut down so that the other would survive.
Mighton said there were other trees in town of that that era, such as the cottonwoods in front of the Main Street Church, but there are no records to show the definite date they were planted and documentation for the tree had to be submitted for recognition.
“It’s a beautiful tree and we’ve taken care of it for the past few years,” said Mighton of the thornless honey locust. “We’ve done a lot of pruning.”
Orren said that they received a plaque from the State of Arizona that states, “The Arizona Community Tree Council and the Arizona Centennial Foundation designated this tree as a centennial witness tree, verified to have witnessed Arizona’s state history from Feb. 14, 1912, to Feb. 14, 2012.
Drive by and see the plaque and the tree, or for more information go online to www.aztrees.org/azcentennial.
