The magnificent oak behind the brick Santa Rosa Junior College sign toppled in a windstorm Nov. 21.
Life is a accumulation of time and memories. Memories of people and events mark moments in time. Each moment is distinct, and each life is unique. If your life spanned centuries, would it be more momentous than others?
Around 1763, when folks on the East coast were tiring of English rule, a tree sprouted, a Valley Oak, a newcomer in a timberland of Valley Oaks here in the Santa Rosa basin. The songs of the Pomo, Miwok and Wappo tribes filled the valley. From the sapling, one could see Hood Mountain in the east and rolling hills in the west. As the sun journeyed from point to point every day, bringing life each season, the Valley Oak grew. Tribes came and went, and change came to the land in the form of men.
Beyond Hood Mountain, the Mexican government built the Sonoma Mission in 1823 to cool the intentions of Russian expansion. It was the first indelible sign of modern progress to come with new populations.
In 1835, while General Vallejo was making a name for himself in the area, the small forest of Valley Oaks took little notice.
In 1848, with end of the Mexican American war, the Valley Oaks ceased to be Mexican and their land transferred to America’s stewardship. Twenty years later, in 1868, the oak forest found itself on the north end of a newly minted city named Santa Rosa. At the age of 107, the tree heard its first train whistle, bringing with it population and progress that threatens most forests.
Luckily for the oaks, Luther Burbank arrived five years later. The land of the oaks became Burbank Park and a measure of protection from the saw came with the name change.
The coming years saw Santa Rosa shaken and burnt in the 1906 earthquake that leveled the court house just a few blocks away. The Oak remained. As people came and went into history the oaks endured.
In 1930, the Santa Rosa Junior College Board of Trustees acquired Burbank Park with the intent of housing SRJC on the site. While many oaks of the old grove were felled to make way for the buildings that house one of the finest schools of its kind, the oak near Healdsburg Avenue remained, passing through the years one day at a time. The road it overlooked was renamed Mendocino Avenue. Many a noteworthy person passed by the tree’s limbs, from Elsie Allen to Alfred Hitchcock.
More recently this oak has been photo-bombing people and team portraits at the SRJC brick sign. In 250 years this oak became a 15-ton, 4-foot wide pillar of tranquility, greeting all travelers to this place over the last century.
The Valley Oak toppled over Nov. 21 in a powerful windstorm. Should such a witness to the past be unceremoniously discarded? Perhaps SRJC could have the trunk of the ancient tree shaped into a massive bench, adorned with etchings of historical significances that depict the history of this Santa Rosa native to celebrate its long life.
Despite the best efforts of dedicated arborists and groundskeepers, time allows nothing to stand forever. The remaining handful of heritage Valley Oaks, that predate the rise of our nation is decreased by one.
