Historic Woodstock message tree taken down due to safety concerns

(AP) — At the 1969 Woodstock festival, many people stopped near the imposing red maple tree, a little away from the main stage. Many scribbled messages on pieces of paper or cardboard and attached them to the trunk of the old tree.

“SUSAN, MEET HERE SATURDAY AT 11 AM, 3 PM, or 7 PM,” read a note left on what would later become known as the Message Tree. In another, Candi Cohen was invited to meet the girls at the hotel. Dan wrote on a paper plate to Cindy (with dark hair and her sister) that he was sorry they were “too out of sorts” to ask for her address, but he left her number.

Fifty-five years after Woodstock, the message tree was cut down Wednesday under rainy skies due to health and safety concerns.

The owners of the famous concert venue were reluctant to lose a living symbol of the community forged on a farm in Bethel, New York, from August 15 to 18, 1969. But the operators of the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts feared that more A tree over 100 years old which is located in an area accessible to the public was at risk of falling. They now plan to honor his legacy.

“It’s like watching a loved one disappear,” said Neal Hitch, senior curator at the Museum At Bethel Woods.

In a time when there were no cell phones, the 60-foot tree near the information booth helped people in the festival’s sea of ​​humanity connect with each other. Hitch noted that it has since served as a tangible connection to the historic event that drew more than 400,000 people to Max Yasgur’s dairy farm, about 80 miles northwest of New York, during a rainy and chaotic weekend.

The generation-defining legend of Woodstock comes not only from renowned artists such as Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, but also from the large number of happy people who crowded together on the muddy hill in front of the stage.

“This tree, literally, is present in almost every photo anyone has taken of the scene – when viewed from the top of the hill, the tree is in the bottom corner. So it’s like something that has stood the test of time,” Hitch said. “So seeing this loss is both nostalgic and melancholy.”

Hitch, speaking Tuesday, said there were still nails and pins on the trunk from where items were attached to the tree over time. The on-site museum has some of the surviving messages.

As long as the tree disappears, its meaning will not fade.

Bethel Woods, which has operated the site for many years, is seeking proposals to create artwork using the salvageable wood. These works will be exhibited next year at the museum. The site also has several saplings made from grafts from the message tree.

Bethel Woods will host a regenerative planting ceremony at some point, and one of these trees may be planted on the site. The plans aren’t certain yet, but Hitch would like to see them come to fruition.

“There’s this symbolism of planting something that will be the message tree for the next generation,” he said.