Pow-Wow Tree, circa 1930.
Courtesy Clackamas County Planning Department.

history continued

Celebrations surrounding the tree continued and, in 1937, the first Gladstone Pow-Wow Festival was held. However, by the early 1950s, the tree was showing signs of weather damage. It had become susceptible to disease after years of damaging winds and rain began to rot the trunk and several branches. By 1967, the tree had deteriorated so badly that the Gladstone City Council ordered it removed for reasons of public safety. After an ensuing public outcry, the following month the city council rescinded the order to remove the tree and instead consulted with an arborist about how to care for it.

Between 1974 and 1976, the Pow-Wow tree was included in a project of the Oregon State Federation of Garden Clubs to locate historic trees and shrubs throughout the state in concert with the American Bicentennial Celebrations. At that time, the Pow-Wow Tree was honored by the International Society of Arboriculture and the National Arborist Association as being significant because it lived during the American Revolutionary Period.