Davy Poplar Sapling Planted in Caswell County: Oakwood Elementary School October 1993
In 1993 one hundred and four sixth-grade students, representing every county in North Carolina,* were invited to Chapel Hill, NC, to attend a ceremony celebrating the bicentennial of the University of North Carolina. Each student received a sapling from the famed Davie Poplar (an iconic tree located in the heart of the UNC campus) and shook hands with Coach Dean Smith (with a photograph taken). Laura Beth Hodges represented Caswell County.
The thought was these students would take the Davie Poplar saplings back to their home counties and plant them. UNC recently launched a project to find these students and document these "baby" Davie Poplars.
_______
*With 100 counties in North Carolina, why the number was one hundred and four is not understood.
Source: "Living in North Carolina: The Legacy of the Davie Poplar" by Brad Campbell in "Our State" (March 2024).
Thanks to Carroll Aldridge for calling this event to my attention and to Brenda Wood Hodges for providing the newspaper item in which her daughter was featured.
_____
Davie Poplar at the University of North Carolina
