Background
"The tree has become more than just a tree. It has become a symbol for justice and transparency. The tree has brought the community together." Marianne Tompkins
History of the Cowlitz Trail at the base of the tree
The Cowlitz trail was a north-south trail used for thousands of years by Native Americans and then became a spur of the Oregon Trail. (The trail is to be distinguished from the Cowlitz to Yakima Trail, which is an east-west trail intersecting with it near Toledo and running across the mountains to Yakima. The Cowlitz to Yakima Trail is often called the Cowlitz Trail, which can be confusing.)
The trail is now Capitol Boulevard/Old Highway 99. If you follow Old Highway 99 southeast from the tree, it follows the path of the Cowlitz Trail. Bonniewood Dr. SE is the path of the trail going north.
The Cowlitz Trail connects the Columbia River and the Puget Sound. The last glaciation period ended 13,500 years ago. The trail then may have started as a game trail. It is probably at least 9,000 years old. Mike Iyall, Cowlitz Tribe historian, explained in 2024 that the trail route varied depending on the season. It also varied depending on mode of transport, whether horse, wagon, or on foot. Most of the trail was actually by canoe on the Cowlitz River.
According to Mike Iyall, the Cowlitz Tribe was a trading tribe. The most famous chief was Chief Scanewa (“Skuh NEE wuh”). The reason the Cowlitz Tribe had a trail that ran that long was the tribe’s population was huge. There were an estimated 30,000 people in the tribe pre-contact.
There were not many conflicts. They eliminated conflicts by marrying neighbors. Chief Scanewa had wives in other tribes up and down Puget Sound and even into Canada. He traded up and down the Cowlitz Trail regularly, and he had a lot of wealth as a result. His success depended upon having wives and relatives everywhere he went.
"You cannot overstate the importance of the Cowlitz Trail to our lives today," said Iyall. "This area would have remained part of Canada had it not been for the Cowlitz Trail. It was the only year-round resupply route to non-Indian settlements up and down the Puget Sound and to Fort Vancouver. The ships didn't dare resupply the Puget Sound except for a few months out of the year because the Pacific Ocean was incredibly dangerous for ships. And you couldn’t cross the Cascades in winter. Ft. Vancouver was the biggest and most successful trading post in British North America. Olympia was the other end of the trail. The goods would then go by ship up Puget Sound."
See here for more information on the Cowlitz Trail. Another source of information is here.
Prairie Oak Ecosystem at the Olympia Airport
The Olympia Airport, where the Davis Meeker oak stands, is a functioning prairie ecosystem. It is home to endangered Oregon vesper sparrows, threatened horned meadowlarks, and threatened Olympia pocket gophers. Here is a video of a horned lark at the airport.
To save this critical prairie habitat, sign the petition to stop airport growth.
Photo credit: screen shot of YouTube video by Nancy Partlow (winterwren3), recorded during a field trip led by Michelle Tirhi.
"Mightily as we have tried to destroy it over the years, many species still experience the airport as the intact and robust oak prairie ecosystem that flourished there well within the lifetime of the Davis Meeker oak. If that tree and other nearby oaks, and the Streaked horned larks, and the Mazama pocket gophers, and the Western meadowlarks, and the Vespers sparrows were allowed to remain unmolested, and some restoration taken place, that prairie ecosystem could flourish again well into the future." - Nancy Partlow.
The Bush Family Farm
Below is an overlay map of the 1854 survey and aerial map. The red dot is the Davis Meeker oak. To its right is the Cowlitz Trail. Then to its right is part of the George and Isabella Bush family's farmland, denoted by a scalloped border. George Bush was an extraordinary man. See here for more information on him.
Map created by Karen Johnson of the Tumwater Historical Association
Bush Told Travelers to Camp Under the Tree
The following is from email correspondence with James Thomas dated July 30, 2024, relating his family's oral history as a descendant of a Tumwater pioneer named Thomas Jefferson Harper who was in Ezra Meeker's Oregon Trail party. The pioneers came to Tumwater in the spring of 1853.
After traversing the Cowlitz Trail and nearing the vicinity of Tumwater they stopped at the George Bush home to ask about the availability of a place to camp. According to my distant cousin, Li Ann Harper Lee (one of T. J. Harper’s grandchildren), Mr. Bush suggested that they camp under the giant oak tree on unclaimed land just northwest of his home. He said the surrounding prairie would provide browse for the livestock and a small lake, just to the east, would be a convenient place to water the stock. My family believes that the Davis-Meeker oak, the largest in the area, is the one they camped under.
...
This is mere speculation, but I would not be surprised if Mr. Bush often directed other new arrivals to camp at the oak tree because of the convenience of nearby water and food for livestock.
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The welcoming oak tree was the Harpers’ shelter on their first nights in their new homeland. It is our hope that the tree can be preserved because the roots of my family, and I suspect many other Washington families, are deeply intertwined with those of this magnificent tree.
Map created by Ronda Larson Kramer using February 11, 1854 survey plat map of Township 17N Range 2W, from the General Land Office Records from the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management.
Saving the Davis Meeker Oak, the First Time Around
This is not the first time the Davis Meeker oak has been at risk of being cut down for the sake of road improvements. In 1984, the county, rather than Tumwater, was in charge of the road. The road department wanted to make safety improvements to Old Highway 99 and asked the county commissioners for permission to cut down the tree.
Jack Davis was an eminent leader of environmental issues in the area. He was soft spoken and well-respected. He and others provided public testimony to the county commissioners. The commissioners included Karen Fraser, who later became Senator Fraser. She recently told Ronda Larson Kramer how it came about: "So those of us who live there, we saw that if you cut the tree down, it changes the whole landscape. So we directed the road department to save the tree and do what they could and to put up a safety barrier. It passed unanimously. It wasn't a big controversy. It was a concern. And Jack Davis had a lot of credibility and everyone respected his perspective."
There are few remaining historical landmarks in the Tumwater area. The Davis Meeker oak is one. See here for more of this history by local historian Don Trosper. Below are the minutes of the commissioners meeting when the tree was saved in 1984.
Photo credit: Don Trosper
Photo by Karen Fraser, spring 1984, before the road was moved.
Garry Oaks Are a Vanishing Legacy
Garry oak (Quercus garryana, also called Oregon white oak) in Tumwater city proper number around 23, according to local Nancy Partlow who has been surveying them. Garry oak communities are now one of North America's most imperiled vegetation types, and Garry oak ecosystems have been identified by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife as a habitat that is critically imperiled and at risk of extinction. As much as 99% of the native prairie oak ecosystem has been lost due to development, economic activity, the growth of invasive species such as ivy, and constantly advancing conifer trees.
At least there are a few other Garry oaks around the Davis Meeker oak. The main reason that the Davis Meeker oak is still putting out copious numbers of acorns is likely because it's near other Garry oaks. Garry oaks are wind pollinated and they can't pollinate themselves.
Regretfully, in 1994, the Port of Olympia cut down four large Garry oaks on the small triangle-shaped parcel at the intersection of Bonniewood Drive and Old Highway 99, presumably to expand the runway protection zone. See photo below. They were right across Old Highway 99 from the Davis Meeker oak and were probably progeny of that tree.
To halt the loss of any more Garry oaks from this remnant prairie oak habitat, we are requesting that the city of Tumwater approve a survey of all nearby public and private lands for Garry oaks to learn how many of them actually remain, especially now that Garry oaks have gained a modicum of protection under Washington state law. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's State Wildlife Action Plan identifies the Garry oak ecosystem as an ecosystem of concern and a Habitat of Greatest Conservation Need for its value to a disproportionately high number of Washington's Species of Greatest Conservation Need. The agency has put out a best management practices guide for managing Garry oak.
Individual Garry oak trees can be considered a priority habitat if they provide considerable value to wildlife.
Many of the Garry oak ecosystems we see today are of Native American origin. Since time immemorial, Native Americans tended Garry oak ecosystems and encouraged their growth. Because Garry oak is often an indicator of culturally important sites in western Washington, the loss of these communities could also mean a loss of artifacts, historical evidence, as well as an appreciation or understanding of the practices of Native people.
Garry oak is native to the Pacific Coast of North America. They can grow to be quite large, with mushroom-shaped canopies of green leaves and sturdy trunks wrapped in bark that is white to grayish in color and distinctly furrowed. You will find them growing from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, to Southern California. Garry oak is the only native oak in Washington and British Columbia and the principle native oak of Oregon. Garry oak ecosystems provide an incredibly rich habitat for wildlife.
Photo credit: Nancy Partlow
1911 Postcard: Largest Oak Tree in WA (near Tacoma)
How Norway Saves Its Ancient Oaks
How to
save an oak
Kestrel Nesting Behavior
Kestrels often reuse the same nest site every year, and their offspring can continue to use that same nest site down through the generations. Also, kestrels will use their nesting cavities as roosting sites outside of the breeding season.
"American Kestrels are secondary cavity nesters that nest in existing natural and man-made cavities. The species prefers nest sites that are surrounded by suitable hunting grounds and that have unobstructed entrances. In some areas, the lack of available nest cavities limits the number of breeding pairs...
"The male often 'flutter-glides' and calls as he approaches the nest site when delivering prey. When he does, the female flies out of the nest cavity and “flutter-glides” with him. [See the video above of the white kestrel and her mate exhibiting this exact behavior, and turn your audio up loud to hear the male call to the female and to hear her respond to him right before she exits the cavity to flutter-glide with him].
"Pairs reuse nest sites particularly if they have successfully raised a brood there previously. Kestrels typically are monogamous and some pairs remain together across years. In sedentary populations, kestrels often remain at the nest site for the entire year.
"Young kestrels depend on their parents for food for two to three weeks after they fledge. During this time, the young sometimes return to the nest cavity to roost...
"Although kestrels are well-adapted to human-dominated environments, measures that decrease the amount of foraging habitat and the number of nest sites, such as changes in farming practices, loss of agricultural areas, and increased suburbanization and urbanization negatively impact them. American Kestrels suffer from competition with other species for nest sites as well." See https://www.hawkmountain.org/raptors/american-kestrel....