A family of trees
There are majestic and iconic live oak trees accented with Spanish moss and resurrection fern throughout the American South, but City Park is home to one of the largest and oldest live oak forests in the world. The park lost roughly 2000 trees following Hurricane Katrina because they stood in five feet of brackish water for weeks. Otherwise, the live oak is nearly impervious to hurricane-force winds because the massive trunk and expansive limbs you see above ground are mirrored by an extraordinary root system. There remain 20,000 trees in the 1,300-acre park. Most of the live oaks predate the founding of New Orleans 300 years ago.
The unusual aspect about the City Park trees is that so many have been given personal names and identities. The massive McDonogh Oak is named after the shipping magnate and philanthropist who donated land to form City Park. It has a circumference of 25 feet and is about 800 years old. The Singing Oak was designed by Jim Hart as a post-Katrina tribute to rebuilding the city. Seven wind chimes hang on the tree. The chimes are tuned to the pentatonic scale, used by West-African music, early gospel, and jazz, all of which represent the roots of New Orleans music. The Suicide Oak is so called because in the span of 12 years, 16 men committed suicide under its branches for reasons of broken hearts or busted bank accounts.
Info
Address City Park, One Palm Drive, New Orleans, LA 70124, 1+ 504.482.4888; a map of the live oaks in City Park can be found at: www.neworleanscitypark.com/in-the-park/city-park-map | Tip City Park is also home to the New Orleans Museum of Art and Sculpture Garden; the New Orleans Botanical Garden; City Putt, the only miniature golf course in the city; Morning Call, a 24-hour beignet coffee stand; Storyland, a kiddie theme park with 25 fiberglass sculptures to climb; and one of the oldest carousels in the United States, which locals call the “flying horses.” Some of the carved horses date back to 1885.
The best known and most visited is the remaining one of two Dueling Oaks, which stands just southwest of the art museum. Before they were outlawed in the late 1800s, countless duels took place under the two trees, using pistols, knives, and particularly swords. Disagreements about the merits of an opera or a gentleman moving his chair too close to another man’s date could result in a duel. A European visitor got bloodied in a duel after he insulted the Mississippi River by calling it “but a tiny rill compared to the great rivers of Europe.”
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