If this tree stump could talk. It’s historical to Silverton, and actually influenced the way in which Silverton grew as a town. It was a meeting place for most likely the Kalapuya and Molalla tribes. Then, pioneer, Polly Crandell Coon, was deemed the founding Mother of Silverton, because she designated the platting of the town around tree. Homer Davenport, a Silverton legend and famous cartoonist in the day, wrote that the short-brimmed hat people came on through and chopped it down in the night. Short-brim was a term for later pioneers that were thought to be from the big city. Silverton is just the type of town to pay homage to the great oak tree. In fact...there’s a mural dedicated to it right in the heart of Silverton.
It’s pretty brilliant to have a tree was the reason for how Silverton formed as a town. Using natural features of the earth, such as waterways were also ways that towns would orient themselves.