Jonesborough, Tennessee’s signature white oak succumbed to a storm last summer, but its legacy lives on.
Photo Above: The stump of the fallen Shanks Oak in Jonesborough, Tennessee, is celebrated by about 20 people who gathered soon after the 700-year-old tree was felled by a storm.
Photo Courtesy Jonesborough Heritage Alliance.
Long before Jonesborough was incorporated in 1779 as Tennessee’s oldest town, the Shanks Oak stood as a shady sentinel on the scenic skyline.
The tree witnessed future President Andrew Jackson’s law career in Jonesborough during the late 1700s, and the 1780s’ brief inclusion of Jonesborough as part of a short-lived and unofficial state of Franklin. And the tree stood sentinel to the birth of the National Storytelling Festival—just down Main Street—in 1973.
“It had been there since the founding of the town and was part of Oak Grove, which belonged to the Jackson family—relatives of Andrew Jackson,” says Jonesborough Heritage Alliance Executive Director Anne Mason.
“We know it was the only tree in that grove to survive time. Others were torn down or fell,” Mason says. “When you think about how big the lumber business was here, and a lot of your old-growth forest, the fact that one remained was amazing.”
Yet, as Aug. 14 blurred into Aug. 15 in 2023, forecasters braced Tri-Cities residents with tornado warnings.
“I heard the tell-tale sound of a tornado,” says Kelly Wolfe, a member of the town’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen. “It sounds like the horn of a locomotive in an area where there’s not any railroad tracks immediately nearby.”
The power was out, says Mason. “It was dark. It was late.”
On that dark and stormy night, fierce winds jangled Jonesborough—and shattered the Shanks Oak, standing 112 feet with a 22-foot circumference and a crown spread of 129 feet.
But that tree, estimated to be as much as 700 years old, laid down its limbs in a way Mason considers a miracle.
“It was truly amazing in how it fell,” Mason says. “It caused the least amount of damage possible. I think the tree knew who took care of it and was as careful as it could be as it came down.”
It fell completely across Main Street, Wolfe says. “We spent about a week and a half getting the tree cleaned up.”
The tree was the largest co-champion white oak in Tennessee, Mason says. “It was huge. It was massive.”
Shanks Oak took its name from a local family on the land where it stood. It became a symbol of Jonesborough at some point in the mid-1900s. “You’ll still see it on logos and stuff in town,” Mason says.
Nearly 20 people gathered soon after the tree fell to pay tribute in a memorial service. Residents read poems while others would simply gaze in the sky with a new wonder.
“What did it mean to the town? Well, basically, in the 1950s even, we have found literature, programs and events that featured the Shanks Oak,” Wolfe says. “It’s been a symbol of the town of Jonesborough for the better part of 70 years. It has been like a family member—a senior family member.”
Today, what’s left of the Shanks Oak—and that’s a lot, Wolfe says—remains in storage with lots of lumber and just as many ideas on how best to use the wood to share stories of the town where stories are best told.
Mason, meanwhile, wants a chunk to don a display at the town museum inside the Jonesborough Visitors Center.
“A statue is being planned. And some folks want to build spoons,” Mason says.
“We want to make sure that pieces of the wood remain and that history or legacy is still honored in some form or fashion.”
The story above first appeared in our January / February 2024 issue.
