THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART X. 605 



This tree is estimated to be about one hundred twenty-five years old, and 

 although its top has been broken off by storms, it is about sixty-five feet 

 high at present with a crown sixty feet in diameter. It is now surrounded 

 by a younger growth of trees, but at one time could be seen from a 

 distance of fifteen miles. Another "Lone Tree" more or less widely 

 known is found in Clay county. A photograph of it, taken by Professor 

 T. H. Macbride, is given in the report of the "Geological Survey" of that 

 county. 



In Princeton, Scott county, there was a "Lone Tree," a box-elder, 

 which was called by some the "Farriage Tree," presumably the mark to 

 a ferry before the day of bridges. On Muscatine island there is a cotton 

 wood known also as "Lone Tree." 



There is a large cottonwood tree in Clinton that marked the old 

 boundary line between Clinton and Lyons when these towns were sep- 

 arated. This tree is a survivor of a number of which were planted some 

 fifty years ago to mark the boundary of a farm, and as this line corres- 

 ponds to a section line, it was later made the city limit. The tree is now 

 cared for as a historical relic. 



But probably the best known and grandest old tree of the state is the 

 "Council Oak" on the bank of the Big Sioux river about a mile from its 

 mouth, made famous because of its connection with Iowa's Indian his- 

 tory. Although the tree has several stumps of dead branches ten or 

 fifteen feet from the base, its top is still quite evenly developed; there 

 being no other large trees around it to disturb its growth. It measures 

 thirteen feet in circuference two feet from the ground, is about eighty 

 feet high, and has a crown seventy feet in diameter at the broadest 

 place. The bark is from three to five inches thick and the tree is sup- 

 posed to be over a thousand years old. There are many traditions con- 

 nected with it but probably the most authenticated are found in the fol- 

 lowing extract from the history of the northwest. 



COUNCIL OR MEDICINE TREE. 



"On the 22d day of August, 1804, Captains Lewis and Clark, with 

 forty-two enlisted men, passed the mouth of the Big Sioux river about one 

 miles to the south of this renowned tree. On the day before, viz.: August 

 21, 1804, while the command of Lewis and Clark laid over at a point 

 about five miles below to pay their respects to Sergeant Charles Floyd, 

 who was buried on the summit of a high bluff with the honors due a brave 

 soldier, it is believed that the Sioux Indians, who inhabited this section 

 and were known as the Yankton Sioux, were at the same time holding 

 council by their chiefs and medicine men under this tree, and were ex- 

 cited beyond measure on account of the proceedings taking place five 

 miles below them on the Missouri river, by what to them was an in- 

 vasion of their country by the long hated yet never until now seen 

 white man. If this noble tree could now communicate to us what took 

 place there on that day and on the days following until the summer of 

 1848, when Wm. Thompson settled at the mouth of the Floyd river, his- 

 tory would then indeed be complete. In 1846 it is believed that Theophile 



