Willows, Bellefonte, PA  Edward Frank
  October 04, 2007
ENTS,

Bellefonte, PA is a community located in Center County just east of State College.  It is a historic community founded in 1785 http://bellefonte.com/history.html  and proud of its Victorian Historic District.  Big Spring is a naturally occurring limestone spring that discharges on average 11.5 million gallons of water per day making it the second largest spring in Pennsylvania. The spring is the primary drinking water source for the community and forms the headwaters of Spring Creek in the downtown portion of Bellefonte.

 

http://www.bellefontearts.org/Smith_pages/Smith_spring.htm   "The Big Spring is the defining element of Bellefonte.  By legend, the French statesman Talleyrand visited the spring with Mrs. Ann Dunlop Harris and exclaimed  "La belle font," leading her to suggest the name Bellefonte to her father Col. James Dunlop and her husband James Harris, who together laid out the town in 1795.  Talleyrand was in exile in America from the French Revolution, from March 1794 to June 1796.  On a visit to nearby Centre Furnace, he may have come to Bellefonte to visit James Harris, and may have seen the spring."

 

http://bellefonte.com/imagearchive/displayimage.php?album=search&cat=0&pos=36

 

There are a series of linked parks along the course of spring creek.  Talleyrand Park is the largest of these units.  Rob Frank and I visited the park to measure some of the black willow remnants growing along the streams.  At one time these must have been impressive trees.  We measured a series of snags with girths in the 20 foot range. Unfortunately these were typically hollow half-shells standing from 6 to 15 feet tall, their tops broken off, along the stream banks.  Many showed evidence of fires that had burned in the interior of these shells.  Still they were all alive.  New sprouts/trunks extended upward from the upper edges these half shells reaching heights of 20 to 30 feet.  In addition we measured several intact willows growing along the streams. These were smaller in girth than the lost giants, but did have intact canopies.

 

Black Willow snags

 

Species

CBH

Height

Longitude

Latitude

Black willow

20' 4"

 

77' 46.868

40' 54.629

Black willow

18' 6"

39 ft.

77' 46.911

40' 54.911

Black willow

20' 2"

~20 ft.

77' 46.928

40' 54.604

Black willow

19' 5"

~25 ft.

77' 46.901

40' 54.631

Black willow

13' 7"

53 ft.

77' 46.913

40' 54.631

 

Black Willow trees

 

Species

CBH

Height

Longitude

Latitude

Black willow

 8' 9"

64.5 ft.

77' 46.949

40' 54.602

Black willow(triple)

 8' 1"

 9'4"

69 ft.

72 ft.

77' 47.041

40' 54.575

Black willow

11' 1"

66 ft.

77' 46.903

40' 54.593

Black willow

 8' 11"

55.5 ft.

77' 46.921

40' 54.626

 

These shells of snags were impressively big around.  In several cases half the stump was missing.   The original cbh would have been larger if the missing segments would still have been present. 

 

Ed Frank

 

Fiery colors begin their yearly conquest of the hills, propelled by the autumn winds.  Fall is the Artist...........Takayuki Ikkaku.


Ed,   Those are some mighty big willows! I have not seen any down here
that large.  Larry


Ed,

Are you sure they are not Salix fragilis, crack willow? They are huge and omnipresent in portions of the NE.

Will


Will,
 
They could be.  I will double check the next time I am in Bellefonte.  I didn't have my books with me.  It is entirely possible I am mistaken.

Ed

    From: Bob Cross
    To: Edward Frank
    Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2009 1:56 PM
    Subject: Re: Willows, Bellefonte, PA

    Ed,

    I am new to this site, and do not know a lot about trees except that
    they are a beutiful site to see, and important to us in many ways. I
    do enjoy looking and wondering about their history. History is my
    interest, so I will get right to my reason for writing.  According to
    history, the giant willows at Bellefonte, PA in Talleyrand Park are
    the remains of a planting by Priscilla Williams in the 1790's.
    Priscilla is my fourth great gandmother. The story is this:  "James
    Williams and his bride rode to their new home in Bellefonte on
    horseback. Mrs. Williams carried for a riding-whip a switch from a
    willow tree that shaded her former home. It was planted on her arrival
    at Bellefonte, and the great willows that still stand along the race
    and in the lumber yard back of the Bush House, are said to be progeny
    of that bridal riding-whip.
    The Bush House stands (in 1923) on the site of the large plaster house
    which was James Williams residence".
    This is from a book I have, "The Families of Joshua Williams of
    Chester County, PA  And John McKeehan Of Cumberland County, PA With
    Some Allied Families", By
    Bessie P. Douglas. It was published in 1928. The information is found
    on page 44. I just thought I would share that with your group, for
    what it is worth to you. The author is also a decendant of the
    Williams Family. This book is also in the Centre County Historical
    Library in Bellefonte.

    Bob Cross

    http://www.nativetreesociety.org/fieldtrips/penna/willows_bellefonte.htm.


 

Jan 18, 2009 02:17:30 PM, edfr...@comcast.net wrote:

  Bob,
  Thanks for the post.  It is great to hear about the history of some of the trees we measure. They were pretty much reduced to short shells by the time  visited the park, but they were still sprouting leaves.  I need to get back there this spring and take some photos and try to identify the species.  They are really too big to be black willow, but Will suggested they might be crack willows (Salix fragilis).  I think he may be right about the species, I really didn't examine them properly at the time.  (I lost a camera atop Mt. Logan earlier in the day and was somewhat preoccupied at the time.)

  Ed Frank


From: rac...@verizon.net
To: edfr...@comcast.net
Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2009 2:29 PM
Subject: Re: Re: Willows, Bellefonte, PA

ED,

A local gentleman salvage some of the wood from the willows after the tree fell. He makes different things out of the wood. He says that they are a white willow. Thats all I know.

Bob Cross