The Bicentennial Sycamore Tree

The Bicentennial Sycamore Tree. June 1917. The sycamore tree is very significant to Buckhannon-Upshur lore. School children here early on in their studies come to learn about, and our community’s residents are nearly universally familiar with, the legend of John and Samuel Pringle living in the hollow of a giant sycamore (1764–67) located here at what is now Pringle Tree Park along the Buckhannon River. , On September 30, 2016, a crowd of thousands gathered downtown in Jawbone Park to celebrate Buckhannon’s bicentennial. As part of that 2016 celebration, the planting of three sycamores symbolizing the third century of our community was commissioned by our city. A second sycamore was planted in Jawbone Park. The third bicentennial sycamore was planted along the bank of the Buckhannon River beside the boat ramp on West Virginia Wesleyan College’s campus. , The original “Pringle Tree” was again celebrated on December 2, 2016 before another substantial gathering of our residents as part of the City Seal mural rededication ceremony conducted downtown at the corner of West Main and North Locust Streets. Artist Ross Straight who designed the mural, and Deborah Dorland who painted the mural were both honored. Our community’s origin shall forever be linked to the sycamore tree. Renowned American poet, novelist, and environmentalist Wendell Berry captured the meaning of the tree in his aptly titled, “The Sycamore.” ,

In the place that is my own place, whose earth , I am shaped in and must bear, there is an old tree growing, , a great sycamore that is a wondrous healer of itself. , Fences have been tied to it, nails driven into it, , hacks and whittles cut in it, the lighting has burned it. , There is no year it has flourished in , that has not harmed it. There is a hollow in it , that is its death, though its living brims whitely , at the lip of the darkness and flows outward. , Over all its scars has come the seamless white , of the bark. It bears the gnarls of its history , healed over. It has risen to a strange perfection , in the warp and bending of its long growth. , It has gathered all accidents into its purpose. , It has become the intention and radian of its dark fate. , It is a fact, sublime, mystical and unassailable. , In all the country there is no other like it. , I recognize in it a principle, an indwelling , the same as itself, and greater, that I would be ruled by. , I see that it stands in its place and feeds upon it, , and is fed upon, and is native, and maker..

, DEDICATED IN MEMORY OF and TRIBUTE TO ALL OF THOSE WHO HAVE STRUGGLED and CONTINUE TO STRUGGLE WITH SUBSTANCE ADDITION. OUR B-U COMUNITY SEEKS TO OFFER HOPE and HELP TO THOSE STRUGGLING, THEIR FAMILIES, and FRIENDS. NEVER GIVE UP!