Gentle reader,
The great Eagle Tree, a native Western Sycamore (Platanus racemosa), stood for centuries in what is now the City of Compton as a natural landmark. The tree was so remarkable in size and distinction that it was recorded by Henry Hancock on his Rancho San Pedro survey (1857) as the “Place of Beginning.”
In April 1947, in co-operation with the Standard Oil Company who held a pipeline easement beneath the tree, the Compton Parlor, Native Daughters of the Golden West, unveiled a large boulder set with a plaque marking the Eagle Tree’s cultural and historic significance.
Around 2017, the Eagle Tree ceased producing leaves, possibly after a lightning strike. The trunk remained standing. Then on April 7, 2022 around 9:20pm, the Eagle Tree fell, leaving a healthy young clone growing from its roots.
We urged the City of Compton and Standard Oil’s successor company Chevron Oil to preserve the 7-ton trunk as a historic resource, and it was moved to safety by crane.
Then, working with environmental horticulturist Dr. Donald R. Hodel, we arranged with Chevron to access the site over a number of months to take genetically identical cuttings from root suckers from the original specimen. These are being cared for by botanists at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, California Botanic Garden in Claremont and the Theodore Payne Foundation.
Many of the cuttings have survived, and are growing into young Eagle Trees that will soon be made available for distribution to municipalities and historic sites around Southern California, including the original site in Compton, to preserve the legacy and story of this iconic living landmark.
Each clone’s location will be noted on this map, so that interested community members can go visit and celebrate the living history of the Eagle Tree and the value of planting and caring for native trees.
And Eagle Tree Clone #1 will soon be planted at a very special place: on the grounds of the Vedanta Society of Southern California’s Hollywood Temple, where a very old Sycamore tree is dying.
If you represent a municipality, botanical garden, arboreta, public park, historic or community site and are interested in caring for a clone of the Eagle Tree, please read Dr. Donald R. Hodel’s information sheet on the project webpage, then contact us. Single saplings are waiting to meet you!
This Saturday will be our first tour of 2024, a walk through the wonderfully weird history of Evergreen Cemetery in Boyle Heights, featuring founding families (Bixby, Van Nuys, Lankershim, Workman, Hollenbeck) and lesser known Angelenos of great character and courage, all of them resting forever in a landscape whose history and secret treasures we will unveil. It’ll be a little drizzly, but only a little, and that adds to the atmosphere. Join us, do!
Yours for Los Angeles,
Kim & Richard
Esotouric
Psst… If you’d like to support our efforts to be the voice of places worth preserving, we have a tip jar and a subscriber edition of this newsletter, vintage Los Angeles webinars available to stream, in-person tours and a souvenir shop you can browse in. We’ve also got recommended reading bookshelves on Amazon and the Bookshop indie bookstore site. And did you know we offer private versions of our walking and bus tours for groups big or small? Or just share this link with other people who care.
UPCOMING BUS & WALKING TOURS
• Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 Walking Tour (Sat. 1/20) • Broadway: Downtown Los Angeles’ Beautiful, Magical Mess Walking Tour (Sat. 1/27) • Bunker Hill, Dead and Alive Walking Tour (Sat. 2/3) • Westlake Park Time Travel Trip Walking Tour (Sat. 2/10) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue Time Travel Trip Walking Tour (Sat. 2/17) • The Real Black Dahlia Crime Bus Tour (Sat. 2/24) • SOLD OUT Know Your Downtown L.A.: Tunnels To Towers To The Dutch Chocolate Shop Walking Tour (Sat. 3/16) • The Run: Gay Downtown History Walking Tour (Sat. 3/23) • John Fante’s Downtown Los Angeles Birthday Walking Tour (Sat. 4/6)
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Announcing the Eagle Tree Clone Distribution Project