For years and years, the biggest tree in North Dakota grew along the Goose River in a pasture on the farm of Arthur Hanson.
This cottonwood tree was the tallest one in the Mayville area even when Arthur Hanson’s father homesteaded their family farm when the first settlers came to the Goose River Valley in the 1870s. This cottonwood, and another tall one right beside it, stood among numerous Goose River cottonwoods, yet these two “towered above others in the grove along the river.”
One evening when Mr. and Mrs. Hanson were milking the cows in the pasture, the smaller of the two giant cottonwoods “fell to the ground without warning,” startling the cows and the Hansons.
Around the year 1906, a lightning bolt struck the giant cottonwood, damaging one side of it, but it survived and kept growing.
Years passed. On this date in 1953, a newspaper article told of North Dakota’s “Biggest Tree Contest,” a search set up by the Greater ND Association.
The contest winner was the giant cottonwood located on Arthur Hanson’s farm, four miles southeast of Mayville.
Hanson’s cottonwood tree towered more than 108 feet above the ground and had a circumference of 23 feet, measured four and one-half feet above the ground. It was as tall as a ten-story building. Experts calculated its age at between 200 and 250 years old.
All of the top ten trees in the “tallest tree” contest were cottonwoods, as judged by a formula established by the American Forestry Association. North Dakota Governor Norman Brunsdale presided over a dedication ceremony for the gigantic tree in September 1954.
Governor Brunsdale had his photograph taken beside a large sign that read: “ND’s Biggest Tree. Cottonwood. Height: 108.2 ft.; circumference at 4 ½ ft.: 23 ft. Average crown spread 63.7 ft. Dedicated 9-24-54 by Gov. Norman Brunsdale.”
The governor also went inside the trunk of the cottonwood tree, stepping into its hollow cavity along with four other men who stood comfortably side by side inside. Tree experts noted that the big tree was not dying; it simply had a hollow middle section.
Henry Graves, a NDSU horticulturalist, said that cottonwoods are remarkably long-lived “when they have plenty of water.”
The gargantuan cottonwood stood tall on Arthur Hanson’s farm for another ten years; however, North Dakota’s biggest tree was downed by a tornado in 1964.
Dakota Datebook written by Dr. Steve Hoffbeck
Sources:
- “New Entry In Big Tree Contest,” Mandan Morning Pioneer, May 25, 1953, p. 2.
- “Sapling Bunyan Missed May Be State’s Biggest Tree,” Fargo Forum, September 20, 1931, p. 4.
- “Biggest Tree In State Feeling Rigors Of Time,” Bismarck Tribune, May 25, 1976, p. 8.
- “Huge Mayville Tree Dedicated,” Grand Forks Herald, September 26, 1954, p. 1.
- “North Dakota’s Biggest Tree,” Grand Forks Herald, September 26, 1954, p. 18.
- “Cottonwood Near Mayville Judged Biggest Tree,” Fargo Forum, August 25, 1953, p. 3.
- “Biggest Tree Is Dedicated,” Fargo Forum, September 25, 1954, p. 1.
- “Dedication Is Set Sept. 24 For Biggest Tree In State,” Fargo Forum, September 12, 1954, p. 17.
- “C. Norman Brunsdale dedicating plaque at North Dakota’s biggest tree near Mayville, N.D.,” photo, Digital Horizons, digitalhorizonsonline.org, accessed November 20, 2014.
