240-Year-Old Elm, Chop!

An elm tree, so old it has been around since before our country was born, will finally be chopped down soon in Maine.

The tree's caretaker has been keeping the tree healthy for over 50 years, helping it overcome numerous bouts of dutch elm disease. But now the caretaker himself, Frank Knight, is over 100 years old, and just doesn't have the stamina anymore to keep caring for the tree, especially as it just came down with a rough case of Dutch elm once again. So Knight has decided to let the tree be chopped down, on January 18th. A sad day to be sure, but both Knight and the tree should be proud of the long life they shared together. The Na'vi would be pleased.

240-Year-Old Elm, Chop!
msnbc

The massive elm tree that shaded the corner of East Main Street and Yankee Drive was sick. Like so many others in so many of America's towns in the 1950s, it was stricken with Dutch elm disease. Tree warden Frank Knight was so smitten with the tree that he couldn't bear to cut it down. After all, it had been standing sentinel in this New England village since before the American Revolution...

240-Year-Old Elm, Chop!