Looks like new ones are coming.
http://orangeisourcolor.com/2015/01/toomers-corner-2015-change-is-coming/ The new Auburn Oaks will be planted at Toomer’s Corner on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2015. Apparently this date was announced back on Nov 7. I don’t remember noticing the announcement at the time. That was the day before the Texas A&M game.
Anyhow, the planting of the new trees, an event that’s been hiding in the nebulous future for some time, is now basically here. If you’ve developed any affinity for oak-less Toomer’s Corner, you best soak in all you can while you can. The view from the webcam is very soon to change.
The new Oaks will be 35 feet tall. How tall were the original Toomer’s Oaks? Answering that question took more googlin’ than I expected. But, eventually this page at The War Eagle Reader steered my search in the direction of this Historic American Landscapes Survey (PDF), which tells us the following.
The two trees that once occupied the site were Southern Live Oaks (Quercus Virginiana), a species native to the southern United States. The College Street tree reached a height of 44 feet with a canopy span of 64 feet, and the Magnolia Avenue tree grew to 30 feet in height with a 46 foot canopy diameter.
So at 35 feet, the new Auburn Oaks will be taller than one of the original Toomer’s Oaks, but shorter than the other. They will certainly be taller than the wires. How high off the ground are the wires? I haven’t found that documented anywhere. My guess is they’re about 18-20 feet high.
The wires seemed a sad stand-in for the Oaks when first suggested, but the tradition’s origin—rolling the utility wires, which have since been moved underground—lent respectability to the temporary arrangement. Just how temporary will the wires’ career at Toomer’s prove to be?
The Auburn Plainsman reports that the city plans to remove both the wires and their poles this summer.
I’ll miss the wires—at least initially. They’ve grown on me, despite the fact that, unlike trees, wires don’t grow. Actually, these have.
The original installation comprised two wires running from the College Street median pole to each of the north-side corner poles. In August 2014 the triangle was completed with three wires running between the two non-median poles. A third wire was also added to each of the preexisting sets. So the wires grew from four in 2013 to nine in 2014. Their reported reduction to zero in 2015 is a bad idea.
There are two reasons for keeping the wires up. Firstly, rolling is bad for trees. So keeping a rolling alternative in place could mitigate the damage. Secondly, the University doesn’t want people rolling Samford park. If the wires were kept in place, the intersection could be shut down for only the biggest celebrations, and on those occasions the rolling could spill into the street, under the wires, rather than migrate toward Thach. Perhaps I’m only arguing for the wires’ retention because I truly have grown fond of them.
The wires are one more little thing that makes Auburn unique. No one else has had reason to set up a temporary rolling structure. Sure, I wish we hadn’t either! But we did, and the wires were the solution, and we rolled them after the greatest moment in the history of sport.
So there’s reason enough for relic treatment, though I’m sure the city has their reasons for wanting them down. Change is coming. It’s already come to the coaching staff, it’s coming to Toomer’s Corner, and it’s coming on the field as well.
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