Once upon a time, our landscape here in the Hudson Valley and Catskills was filled with American Chestnut trees (the redwood of the East) and Eastern Hemlocks. Sadly, diseases like chestnut blight, invasives like the wooly agelgid, and the excesses of the leather tanning industry have largely eliminated our old growth forests.
Despite those losses, our region has much to be proud of with our trees. Here are seven trees that tree experts have given recognition to as having historical significance.
1. The Balmville Tree, Newburgh
The Balmville Tree was an Eastern cottonwood tree in Newburgh. It was one of the most famous natural landmarks in Hudson Valley history, living from 1699 until its removal in 2015, and far surpassing its species’ typical 75 year lifespan by reaching an age of more than 300 years.
At 85 feet tall with a 25-foot circumference, it stood as the oldest known Eastern cottonwood in the United States and served as a gathering place for Revolutionary War patriots and generations of Newburgh residents who strolled, picnicked, and even cycled out to visit it.
Folklore claimed it sprouted from George Washington’s riding crop, while historical fact confirms Washington passed by it when his headquarters were in Newburgh, and later Franklin D. Roosevelt admired it as a boy visiting relatives nearby. Its civic importance deepened over the centuries, inspiring Sunday promenade traditions, appearing in local lore as a muse for Matthew Vassar, and becoming the centerpiece of a preservation battle in the 1990s that raised $15,000 and installed a steel column to keep it standing. The tree was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000 and designated the smallest State Forest in New York. It was hollow and unsafe by the time it was removed, but a 15-foot stump remains.
2. Gallows Tree, Poughkeepsie
The so-called Gallows Tree of Poughkeepsie has long carried a grim reputation, though whether it truly served as an execution site remains uncertain.
According to the Poughkeepsie Library, it was mentioned in James Smith’s History of Dutchess County and marked on an 1799 map near what is now Pulaski Park. The tree was prominent enough to serve as a landmark in deeds, but no records confirm that hangings occurred there. Historian Helen Wilkinson Reynolds suggests the name might have referred simply to the tree’s branching shape rather than actual executions.
3. FDR’s Tree Legacy in Hyde Park
Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s connection to trees is evident throughout his Hyde Park estate, where he proudly listed his occupation as “tree farmer” even while serving as President. The estate included 800 acres of native woods and 400 acres of Roosevelt’s experimental tree plantations.
One story involves Roosevelt’s favorite tree, a massive white oak planted before the Revolution that stood in the estate’s front field along the Albany Post Road. In 1941, just minutes after the death of Roosevelt’s mother Sara, this great oak mysteriously toppled on an otherwise clear and windless day.
4. Schuyler’s Tree in Rhinebeck
Located at “The Grove” 18th Century manor in the Town of Rhinebeck, a 200-year old black walnut tree was notable for being planted by the son of Revolutionary War General Philip Schuyler in 1795. Sadly, it was destroyed in a storm in 2014.
5. The World’s Oldest Forest, Cairo
According to paleontologists, the world’s oldest known forest is located in an abandoned quarry in Cairo, where fossil records show trees dating backing 387 million years. The trees are believed to have Archaeopteris trees, which reached heights of 30 feet and developed complex root systems.
6. The Dover Oak, Pawling
Pawling’s Dover Oak is a massive white oak in eastern Dutchess County regarded as a natural landmark. Estimated at over 300 years old, it measures about 22 feet in circumference and 114 feet tall, making it the largest known oak along the entire Appalachian Trail, making it a popular stopping point. It is listed in the New York State Big Tree Registry as the largest Eastern white oak recorded in the state. Conservation efforts have been made to protect its roots.
7. Liberty Tree Sapling, Newburgh
At Washington’s Headquarters State Historic Site in Newburgh, visitors can see a young tulip poplar planted in 2008 as a descendant of the original Liberty Tree. This sapling was cultivated from the last surviving colonial Liberty Tree (which had stood in Annapolis, Maryland)
In the Revolutionary era, “Liberty Trees” were meeting points for the Sons of Liberty, and the original New York Liberty Tree in Manhattan was destroyed by the British. The planting of this tulip poplar at Washington’s HQ, one of 13 distributed to each of the original states is a living memorial connecting modern Americans with the spirit of 1776