As part of its commitment to plant one million trees in the park, the Shelby Farms Park Conservancy held its first “One in a Million Tree” contest this month.
Twenty trees from across the county were nominated with the winning entry a 275-year-old pecan tree submitted by Lee Millar.
The pecan towers over Millar’s Collierville home, on the same site as early log cabin.
“After researching the history of the site with two of Collierville’s town historians, and reviewing old land deeds and grants, I discovered that the property was given as a land grant to its earliest recorded owner
following his service in the revolutionary war,” Miller said. “A log cabin was built under the tree, which would have already been large enough to provide shade at that time.”
Entries were judged on size, age, historical significance, and beauty, and I have to say: The Shelby Farms Park Conservancy got some really amazing judges to help them out. Just great, great judging prowess. (Oh, right. Full disclosure, I was one of them.)
