Missouri Botanical 
Garden Bulletin 
Vol. X St.Louis, Mo., February, 1922 No. 2 
THE DANIEL BOONE JUDGMENT TREE 
The Daniel Boone Judgment Tree, under which Daniel 
Boone held court during the early part of the nineteenth 
eentury, has been the subject of considerable discussion, both 
as to what and where it was. It has at various times been 
reported to be a poplar, an elm, and a sycamore, and in order 
to settle the question an expedition was sent out from the 
Garden last fall in the hope of locating the tree and getting 
some accurate information concerning it. 
What is unquestionably the so-called ‘‘Daniel Boone Judg- 
ment Tree’’ was finally located on the old Boone homestead 
at Darst’s Bottom, Femme Osage, now owned by Mr. Henry 
Bollmann. Femme Osage is the name given by Daniel Boone 
to a creek because an Osage Indian woman was drowned 
here. There is a small village which takes its name from the 
creek and there was formerly a post-office located here. The 
Femme Osage post-office was abandoned about twelve years 
ago, all the mail for the village now going through Augusta 
on a rural route. The tree is about five miles east of Femme 
Osage village and five miles west of the village of Defiance, 
on the Femme Osage Creek road. It is growing on the bank 
of a shallow ravine, about 15C feet northwest of the stone 
house which was built by Nathan Boone, Daniel Boone’s 
youngest son, and about forty feet south of the site formerly 
occupied by the old log house of Daniel Boone. The tree, 
which is an American elm (Ulmus americana), is sixty-five 
feet high, forked about three feet from the ground, each 
branch measuring nine feet in circumference at the fork. The 
main trunk is sixteen feet six inches in circumference two 
feet from the ground. The main branch to the west is badly 
decayed with large open cavities extending into the heart- 
wood. The main branch on the east which grows more nearly 
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