This month the Marshall County Museum is celebrating Arbor Day all month long. Each Thursday they will unveil some of Marshall County’s obscure, memorable, and ‘believe-it-or-not’ trees. The first tree featured is the “upside-down” tree that was on State Road 17 west of Plymouth.
This is their first article.
Trees, trees, trees! Where would we be without trees? We’re celebrating Arbor Day all month long in our next series. Learn about some of the obscure, memorable, and ‘believe-it-or-not’ trees that have grown in Marshall County.
Sometimes trees are grafted to produce a tree that would never be found in nature, such as the fruit trees which produce four or five different fruits on the same tree. Just west of Plymouth on Highway 17 there was a tree known as the “upside down” tree.
Ray Price, a local nurseryman, grafted together Chinese Elm and Red Elm roots in 1907 to pro duce the effect. It looked like a tree growing its roots into the air with its leaves presumably growing underground. The tree became so famous it was featured in Ripley’s Believe It or Not. The tree died in 1979, but owner Mark Faulstich planned to preserve it in silicone after all the bark had fallen off and leave it until it fell apart. That worked for a few years, but by the mid-1980s, the tree had become dangerously fragile and had to be taken down.
