ENTS,
Bellefonte,
PA is a community located in Center County just east of State
College. It is a
historic community founded in 1785 http://bellefonte.com/history.html
and proud of its Victorian Historic District.
Big Spring is a naturally occurring limestone spring that
discharges on average 11.5 million gallons of water per day making
it the second largest spring in Pennsylvania. The spring is the
primary drinking water source for the community and forms the
headwaters of Spring Creek in the downtown portion of Bellefonte.
http://www.bellefontearts.org/Smith_pages/Smith_spring.htm
"The Big Spring is the defining element of Bellefonte.
By legend, the French statesman Talleyrand visited the
spring with Mrs. Ann Dunlop Harris and exclaimed
"La belle font," leading her to suggest the name
Bellefonte to her father Col. James Dunlop and her husband James
Harris, who together laid out the town in 1795.
Talleyrand was in exile in America from the French
Revolution, from March 1794 to June 1796.
On a visit to nearby Centre Furnace, he may have come to
Bellefonte to visit James Harris, and may have seen the
spring."
http://bellefonte.com/imagearchive/displayimage.php?album=search&cat=0&pos=36
There
are a series of linked parks along the course of spring creek.
Talleyrand Park is the largest of these units.
Rob Frank and I visited the park to measure some of the
black willow remnants growing along the streams.
At one time these must have been impressive trees.
We measured a series of snags with girths in the 20 foot
range. Unfortunately these were typically hollow half-shells
standing from 6 to 15 feet tall, their tops broken off, along the
stream banks. Many
showed evidence of fires that had burned in the interior of these
shells. Still they
were all alive. New
sprouts/trunks extended upward from the upper edges these half
shells reaching heights of 20 to 30 feet.
In addition we measured several intact willows growing
along the streams. These were smaller in girth than the lost
giants, but did have intact canopies.
Black
Willow snags
|
Species
|
CBH
|
Height
|
Longitude
|
Latitude
|
|
Black
willow
|
20'
4"
|
|
77'
46.868
|
40'
54.629
|
|
Black
willow
|
18'
6"
|
39
ft.
|
77'
46.911
|
40'
54.911
|
|
Black
willow
|
20'
2"
|
~20
ft.
|
77'
46.928
|
40'
54.604
|
|
Black
willow
|
19'
5"
|
~25
ft.
|
77'
46.901
|
40'
54.631
|
|
Black
willow
|
13'
7"
|
53
ft.
|
77'
46.913
|
40'
54.631
|
Black
Willow trees
|
Species
|
CBH
|
Height
|
Longitude
|
Latitude
|
|
Black
willow
|
8'
9"
|
64.5
ft.
|
77'
46.949
|
40'
54.602
|
|
Black
willow(triple)
|
8'
1"
9'4"
|
69
ft.
72
ft.
|
77'
47.041
|
40'
54.575
|
|
Black
willow
|
11'
1"
|
66
ft.
|
77'
46.903
|
40'
54.593
|
|
Black
willow
|
8'
11"
|
55.5
ft.
|
77'
46.921
|
40'
54.626
|
These
shells of snags were impressively big around.
In several cases half the stump was missing.
The original cbh would have been larger if the missing
segments would still have been present.
Ed
Frank
Fiery colors begin their yearly
conquest of the hills, propelled by the autumn winds. Fall
is the Artist...........Takayuki Ikkaku.
Ed, Those are some mighty big willows! I have not
seen any down here
that large. Larry
Ed,
Are you sure they are not Salix
fragilis, crack willow? They are huge and omnipresent in
portions of the NE.
Will
Will,
They could be. I will double
check the next time I am in Bellefonte. I didn't have my
books with me. It is entirely possible I am mistaken.
Ed
From: Bob Cross
To: Edward Frank
Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2009 1:56 PM
Subject: Re: Willows, Bellefonte, PA
Ed,
I am new to this site, and do not know a
lot about trees except that
they are a beutiful site to see, and important to us in many
ways. I
do enjoy looking and wondering about their history. History
is my
interest, so I will get right to my reason for writing.
According to
history, the giant willows at Bellefonte, PA in Talleyrand
Park are
the remains of a planting by Priscilla Williams in the
1790's.
Priscilla is my fourth great gandmother. The story is this:
"James
Williams and his bride rode to their new home in Bellefonte
on
horseback. Mrs. Williams carried for a riding-whip a switch
from a
willow tree that shaded her former home. It was planted on
her arrival
at Bellefonte, and the great willows that still stand along
the race
and in the lumber yard back of the Bush House, are said to be
progeny
of that bridal riding-whip.
The Bush House stands (in 1923) on the site of the large
plaster house
which was James Williams residence".
This is from a book I have, "The Families of Joshua Williams
of
Chester County, PA And John McKeehan Of Cumberland County,
PA With
Some Allied Families", By
Bessie P. Douglas. It was published in 1928. The information
is found
on page 44. I just thought I would share that with your
group, for
what it is worth to you. The author is also a decendant of
the
Williams Family. This book is also in the Centre County
Historical
Library in Bellefonte.
Bob Cross
http://www.nativetreesociety.org/fieldtrips/penna/willows_bellefonte.htm.
Jan 18, 2009 02:17:30 PM, edfr...@comcast.net
wrote:
Bob,
Thanks for the post. It is great to hear about the history of some of
the trees we measure. They were pretty much reduced to short
shells by the time visited the park, but they were still
sprouting leaves. I need to get back there this spring and take
some photos and try to identify the species. They are really
too big to be black willow, but Will suggested they might be
crack willows (Salix fragilis). I think he may be right about
the species, I really didn't examine them properly at the time.
(I lost a camera atop Mt. Logan earlier in the day and was
somewhat preoccupied at the time.)
Ed Frank
From: rac...@verizon.net
To: edfr...@comcast.net
Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2009 2:29 PM
Subject: Re: Re: Willows, Bellefonte, PA
ED,
A local gentleman salvage some of the wood from the willows
after the tree fell. He makes different things out of the wood.
He says that they are a white willow. Thats all I know.
Bob Cross
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