Walks: The Mausoleum Trees History The site of the Stanford family crypt was certainly chosen in part because of its 200-year old heritage tree (to the right). The giant oak was as large as oaks get, reaching 70 feet high with a branch spread almost double that. The landscaping around the crypt includes a variety of 100-year old exotic specimens associated by many with heaven, victory, peace, and mourning. Stanford University Archives Native Specimens: The Heritage Oak The oak lived another century after the completion of the family crypt in 1889. Over that century the tree withstood adjustments to: asphalt off-season irrigation soil compaction the removal of 10-to-20 feet of branches and the installation of steel cables connected to blocks of concrete embedded in the branches the insertion of a guy wire to anchor the tree to the ground the failure of the anchor and the toppling of the tree in a storm in the 1930s the subsequent jacking up of the massive tree to near vertical followed by the installation of additional anchor guy wires after the storm the periodic insertion of additional cabling old age and, finally, drought All of these adjustments are seen as factors contributing to the tree's eventual susceptibility to bacterial organisms that infected it with branch-killing and leaf-killing diseases that proved terminal. In 1993, the heritage tree was cut down and replaced with a 50-year old, 20-foot high oak transplanted from the Stanford Research Park. The replacement tree had been removed from Porter Drive in compliance with the San Francisco Water Department's Hetch-Hetchy right-of-way regulations for protecting underground pipes from tree root damage. Of course, extraordinary care had been provided to this heritage tree, but maintenance of the other 50,000 tress in the central campus, including 25,000 in the Arboretum, is rigorous as well. A data base indicating precise tree locations is being developed and should help replace crisis intervention with routine adherence to budgets and schedules.   Exotic Specimens Many of the trees near the Mausoleum are thematically related. More detailed coverage is available in Ingeborg Ratnor's Nature Walks of Stanford. Tree Symbol A A Palms victory over death, prosperity, peace, victory A A Conifers eternal life, life and prosperity ...Cedar A ........ Cedar of Lebanon peace ........ Deodar Cedar tree of God (line the mall approaching the crypt) ...Cypress A ........ Arbor Vitae A ........... Oriental tree of life (flank the crypt entrance) ........... Western Red Cedar tree of life ........ Italian Cypress eternal life, irrevocability of death, guarding the dead ...Pine protection from death, but if death prevails, protection in spirit realm A AA Deciduous Trees A ... Quercus A ........ Coast Live Oak strength ... Laurel A ........ True Laurel merit, victory, courage, civil service, creation of beauty ... Olive A ........ Olive Tree peace, victory, freedom, hope, mercy, prayer, purity, order ... Quassia A ........ Tree of Heaven tree of heaven AA AA Shrubs A ........ Heavenly Bamboo bamboo: rectitude and consistancy; protection of dead from evil ........ Toyon Christmasberry Additional 100-year-old exotics in the vicinity of the Mausoleum include Portugual and California laurel, sheoak, yucca, paperback maple, crape myrtle, eucalyptus, and nutmeg trees supplying birds with sources of flowers, nectar, sap and seeds.   BACK