Herbie | |
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![]() Photograph of "Herbie", taken prior to its spread being reduced in 2008. The tree was cut down in 2010 | |
Species | American elm ( Ulmus americana ) |
Coordinates | 43°48′02″N70°10′35″W / 43.800573°N 70.176283°W |
Date seeded | 1793 |
Date felled | 2010 |
"Herbie" was an American elm tree located in Yarmouth, Maine, United States. It stood by present-day East Main Street (State Route 88), at its intersection with Yankee Drive, [1] for 217 years (from 1793 to January 19, 2010). At 110 feet in height, it was, between 1997 and the date of its felling, [2] the oldest [3] and largest [4] of its kind in New England. [5] The tree, which partially stood in the front yard of a private residence, also had a 20-foot circumference and (until mid-2008) a 93-foot crown spread. [5] It was so-named when children witnessed some of its diseased limbs being sawn off. "What are you going to do to Herbie? Don't cut Herbie!" they cried, and the name stuck.
A plaque on its trunk stated:
Historic ElmThis tree is hereby designated
Elm Research Institute, Harrisville, N.H. 03450
a historic landmark to be
honored and preserved for
future generations.
On May 1, 1834, the town gave Herbie some company by planting rows of elm trees along East Elm Street. From 1957 onward, however, most of them succumbed to Dutch elm disease. [3] As of 2003, only twenty of Yarmouth's original 739 elms had survived. [6]
After battling fifteen bouts of Dutch elm disease, in 2007, stripes appeared under the tree's bark, indicating a worsening condition. [7] In August 2009, it was revealed that Herbie would be cut down on January 18 and 19, 2010, [4] [8] at a cost of $20,000. [7] In October 2009, the plaque was removed from its trunk and replaced with a laminated version, and before the end of the year, "The Herbie Project" fund-raising campaign was set up to raise money to care for and plant other trees in the town. [7] After the tree's demise, local woodworkers used its wood to make products to be auctioned off to raise money for the trust. [7]
A snowstorm during the night of January 17–18, 2010 postponed the removal. The tree was removed on January 19. [9] A preliminary count of the tree's rings, done on site, revealed its age to be at least 212 years. [10] On February 4, however, the official count showed it to be 217. The stump was removed over the weekend of May 29 and 30.
A section of the trunk's base was on show at the 2010 Yarmouth Clam Festival. It is now on permanent display outside Yarmouth town hall, on Cleaves Street, a project of the local Eagle Scouts.
Frank Knight, the town's former "tree warden", died at the age of 103 on May 14, 2012. Knight's casket was made, in secret, out of Herbie's wood. [11] Succeeded by Deb Hopkins in 2006, Knight cared for the tree for half of his life, having accepted the role in 1956. Knight's efforts were recognized by the town: the athletic fields at North Yarmouth Academy bear his name, as does a forest behind the town's community garden; [12] a tree in front of Yarmouth's town hall was planted in his honor; and, in 1983, he was the fourth recipient of the town's Latchstring Award. [6] [13]
In 2017, Portland's Liquid Riot Bottling Company released a beer in tribute to Herbie. [14]
Ulmus americana, generally known as the American elm or, less commonly, as the white elm or water elm, is a species of elm native to eastern North America, naturally occurring from Nova Scotia west to Alberta and Montana, and south to Florida and central Texas, and is the State Tree of Massachusetts. The American elm is an extremely hardy tree that can withstand winter temperatures as low as −42 °C. Trees in areas unaffected by Dutch elm disease (DED) can live for several hundred years. A prime example of the species was the Sauble Elm, which grew beside the banks of the Sauble River in Ontario, Canada, to a height of 43 m (140 ft), with a d.b.h of 196 cm (6.43 ft) before succumbing to DED; when it was felled in 1968, a tree-ring count established that it had germinated in 1701.
The Wych Elm cultivar Ulmus glabra 'Camperdownii', commonly known as the Camperdown Elm, was discovered about 1835–1840 as a young contorted elm growing in the forest at Camperdown House, in Dundee, Scotland, by the Earl of Camperdown's head forester, David Taylor. The young tree was lifted and replanted within the gardens of Camperdown House where it remains to this day. The original tree, which grows on its own roots, is less than 3 m tall, with a weeping habit and contorted branch structure. The earl's gardener is said to have produced the first of what are commonly recognised as Camperdown elms by grafting a cutting to the trunk of a wych elm.
The Liberty Tree (1646–1775) was a famous elm tree that stood in Boston, Massachusetts near Boston Common in the years before the American Revolution. In 1765, Patriots in Boston staged the first act of defiance against the British government at the tree. The tree became a rallying point for the growing resistance to the rule of Britain over the American colonies, and the ground surrounding it became known as Liberty Hall. The Liberty Tree was felled in August 1775 by Loyalists led by Nathaniel Coffin Jr. or by Job Williams.
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State Route 88 (SR 88) is a state highway in southern Maine, United States. It runs south to north for 8.37 miles (13.47 km), from U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Falmouth to US 1 in Yarmouth. It runs to the east of US 1, and its speed limit is 35 miles per hour (56 km/h). Over its course, its furthest distance from US 1 is about 1⁄2 mile (0.80 km). This occurs in its Falmouth Foreside section.
Yarmouth station of Yarmouth, Maine, is located on the east side of the railroad tracks, just south of Maine State Route 115, the town's Main Street. The railroad station was built in 1906 by the Grand Trunk Railroad, and is a well-preserved example of an early 20th-century passenger rail depot, an increasingly rare sight in the state. The building, which is now in commercial use, was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 10, 1979.
Yarmouth is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States, twelve miles north of the state's largest city, Portland. When originally settled in 1636, as North Yarmouth, it was part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and remained part of its subsequent incarnations for 213 years. In 1849, twenty-nine years after Maine's admittance to the Union as the twenty-third state, it was incorporated as the Town of Yarmouth.
The historical buildings and structures of Yarmouth, Maine, represent a variety of building styles and usages, largely based on its past as home to almost sixty mills over a period of roughly 250 years. These mills include that of grain, lumber, pulp and cotton. Additionally, almost three hundred vessels were launched by Yarmouth's shipyards in the century between 1790 and 1890, and the homes of master shipwrights and ship captains can still be found throughout the town.
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Down-East Village Restaurant & Motel was a business that existed in Yarmouth, Maine, from 1950 to 2011. It was the second motel built in Maine, and eventually became the oldest in operation.
Frank Addison Knight was an arborist from Yarmouth, Maine, United States. One of his most prominent roles was as the tree warden for "Herbie", an American elm that stood in Yarmouth for over 200 years. It was a role he held for around the last fifty years of the tree's life. "Herbie" was the oldest and largest American elm in New England. The tree was cut down in 2010 after succumbing to Dutch elm disease. Knight's efforts to extend the tree's life brought him international attention. He estimated he saved the tree's life on fourteen occasions over five decades. "It's his time now, and soon it will be mine," a 101-year-old Knight said, attending the tree's removal on January 19, 2010.
Main Street is a historic street in Yarmouth, Maine, United States. It is part of the 18-mile-long (29 km) State Route 115 (SR 115), the eastern terminus of which is in Yarmouth at the intersection of Marina Road and Lafayette Street (SR 88), at Yarmouth Harbor in the Lower Falls area. Its western end is a merging with Walnut Hill Road in North Yarmouth, at which point SR 115 continues west.
Andy's Handy Store, colloquially known as Handy Andy's, is a historic building in Yarmouth, Maine, United States. Located at 367 Main Street, at its junction with Elm Street in the town's Upper Village, part of the building dates to 1891. It has been the home to over thirty businesses. As of early 2022, Thoroughfare occupies the entire building.
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Portland Street is a historic street in Yarmouth, Maine, United States. It runs for about 1.25 miles (2.01 km) from the town's Main Street, State Route 115, in the north to its merge with Middle Road in the south. It is so named because it leads to Portland, the state's largest city, after linking up with State Route 9 in Falmouth, Maine.
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