The Linden Oak

I was commissioned to make a bench out of the Linden Oak, a 300-400 year old Oak tree believed to have been the oldest tree in Montgomery County when it died in 2022.

Sculpture on permanent public display at Ken-Gar Palisades Park

Reaching into history, this sculpture connects the environment around the birth of the Linden Oak to the present. Three hundred years ago, when what would become the oldest tree in Montgomery County, MD was planted, a North American wood bison may have been lounging in the shade, sipping from rock creek. What we now call Wisconsin Avenue was developed from foot trails used by Native Americans, which were following natural migration routes of the bison in this area, called "traces." The other half of the bench shows the oak seedling with a tap root coming out and down around front, seeking water, and the stem bursting from the acorn with two leaves covering the back of the bench, seeking light. Is it surprising that bison roamed here? What might be common now, but extirpated from the area and surprising to your descendants 300 years from now? What is our connection to the bison of this land? The title of the piece is "Connected Through Time."