George Washington's Oak Tree
Like most surveyors Washington used trees to mark the boundaries of his property. Today, only a small stone pedestal remains of one of the original property's markers, an oak tree.
Every day many Arlingtonians enjoy walking, jogging, or biking on the Washington and Old Dominion Trail along Four Mile Run, unaware that they are passing through a piece of land that once belonged to George Washington.
In the 18th century, wood was an important industrial resource, used for everything from building houses and ships to making furniture, wagons, and barrels or as fuel.
In 1774, on the advice of his friend George Mason, Washington decided to purchase two adjacent tracts of land in Arlington County. The area was heavily wooded, primarily hickory and oak. The price was 892 pounds or about $7.00 per acre. As a certified land surveyor, Washington planned to run the lines of the tracts and mark the boundaries more visibly. But fate would have it otherwise.
By June of the following year, Washington was in Philadelphia, taking command of the Continental Army.
Returning to private life after the end of the Revolutionary War, Washington was eager to establish the boundaries of his tracts and "test their contents. He was also troubled by reports that trespassers routinely looted the valuable timber.
The first attempt at surveying was cut short when one of his servants fell and had to be evacuated. In the following year, 1785, he finally completed his survey.
History records only one of the landmarks Washington made - a cut in the trunk of an oak tree that grew where a tributary, Long Branch, joined Four Mile Run. The tree fell during a storm in 1898, but part of its trunk is preserved in Glencarlyn Library, while a stone marker marks the tree's original location.
