Helen Keller’s Beloved Climbing Tree Cut Down After 200 Years

Helen Keller’s beloved water oak tree — made famous by the tale in her autobiography in which she had to be rescued from its branches during a storm — has been cut down after standing for over two centuries.

According to the Times Daily, the tree, which featured famously in Helen Keller’s autobiography The Story of my Life, had to be cut down on Monday after part of the tree fell during a storm that rocked her childhood home of Ivy Green in Alabama in July, says Sue Pilkilton, executive director of Ivy Green.

“Isn’t that the saddest thing? We have tried for years to save that tree.”

The storm that took down part of the tree in July carried with it a category EF1 tornado, and it wasn’t the first EF1 to rock the tree, says Pilkilton. In October of 2014, another tornado battered the Keller’s tree, causing stress to the limbs.

“[The tornado in July] took a whole side of the tree. It was like someone took an ax and cut it right in two. We’re very fortunate that the limbs did not do any damage to anything. For the safety of visitors and of our neighbors around us, we just had to take it down.”

Once the chainsaws had done their job, and Keller’s tree lay on the ground, it was obvious why the tree had to be cut down: the entire inside of the 200-year-old tree was hollow from insect infestation and years of decay.

Lynne Weaver, a docent at Ivy Green, told Reuters that the tree was a favorite of schoolchildren who visited Ivy Green during field trips, due in large part, to the story in Keller’s biography in which, after their morning lessons, Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan decided to take a walk and a climb in the treasured tree. Sullivan left Keller within its branches as she ran inside to make the two a picnic lunch. Soon after, a storm rolled in, trapping Helen in the tree, and the young girl had to be rescued by Sullivan.

As of yet, Weaver says that no decision has been made as to what will happen to Helen Keller’s tree, but the wood was not mulched after it was cut down. She added that the museum has received several requests for pieces of the tree as souvenirs, as well people from around the world have offered to carve some of the wood into memorial pieces for the museum.

[Image Credit: American Foundation for the Blind]