The tradition of rolling Toomer’s Corner migrates deeper into Samford Park with every Auburn win, to the quiet annoyance of AU officials.
“It creates a lot of mess to clean up,” Dan King, assistant vice president for facilities at Auburn University, told TWER in February. “We like to have less mess to clean up. I don’t know exactly the best way to stop 30,000 people from doing that, but the city has a master plan for the downtown of the corner to bring it [rollings] back more to the actual intersection.”
But if the purpose behind certain elements of the Toomer’s Corner renovation was to slowly shepherd the flock back—and keep them contained—at the corner, well, planting 30 descendants of the Toomer’s Oaks along the path leading from the corner to Samford Hall was probably the wrong way to go.
But it’ll sure look pretty.
The Auburn University Board of Trustees on Friday approved a plan to plant 30 live oak trees grown from Toomer’s Oaks acorns in Samford Park in addition to two (or is it three?) large replacement oaks at the corner. The acorns were harvested from the original Toomer’s Oaks twelve years ago, back when the trees were still lowercase, but important enough for succession contingencies in the event of disease and distress. Or, as it would turn out, poison.
According to Auburn Horticulture Professor Dr. Gary Keever, the 30 trees, now 15 feet tall, have been growing in an off-campus AU Forestry facility.
The plantings are included in Phase II of the Toomer’s Corner renovation project, which will begin in Spring 2015.
Replacing the oaks at Toomer’s Corner is the final part of Phase 1. The trees will be planted on Feb. 16, 2015.
More information on the project can be found here.
More on Toomer’s Corner: Auburn grad attorney had no qualms defending Updyke / Toomer’s Oaks souvenirs will be branded ‘Auburn Oaks’ / Woodturned item made from Toomer’s Oaks will be on permanent display in Auburn art museum / Toomer’s Corner rollings didn’t start with Punt, Bama, Punt, says History / Did Auburn students celebrate Bear Bryant’s death by rolling Toomer’s Corner?
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