American Liberty Elm Tree, Coinjock
A marker stands next to the American Liberty Elm planted in 2003 (see Subject Notes below). The marker is a short square column with roughhewn sides. A finished lectern face holds a metal plaque with the inscription.
PLANTED 2003 / TO COMMEMORATE THE DEDICATION OF / VETERANS MEMORIAL PARK / IN THE YEAR 2003
THE AMERICAN LIBERTY ELM WAS NAMED AFTER “THE LIBERTY TREE. OUR COUNTRY’S FIRST / SYMBOL OF FREEDOM.” ON THE MORNING OF AUGUST 14, 1765 THE PEOPLE OF BOSTON / AWAKENED TO DISCOVER TWO EFFIGIES SUSPENDED FROM AN ELM TREE IN PROTEST OF THE HATED / STAMP ACT. FROM THAT DAY FORWARD THAT ELM BECAME KNOWN AS “THE LIBERTY TREE.” FOR / THE NEXT TEN YEARS IT STOOD IN SILENT WITNESS TO COUNTLESS MEETINGS, SPEECHES AND / CELEBRATIONS, AND OFTEN SERVED AS THE RALLYING PLACE FOR THE SONS OF LIBERTY. IN AUGUST OF / 1775 AS A LAST ACT OF VIOLENCE PRIOR TO THE EVACUATION OF BOSTON, BRITISH SOLDIERS CUT IT / DOWN BECAUSE IT BORE THE NAME “LIBERTY.”
ELM RESEARCH INSTITUTE / KEENE, N.H. 03431
Currituck County
November 2003
36.347080 , -75.950960
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Trickey, Eric. “The Story Behind a Forgotten Symbol of the American Revolution: The Liberty Tree,” Smithsonian Magazine (Washington D.C.), May 19, 2016, (accessed March 15, 2023) Link
“American Elm,” The Morton Arboretum, mortonarb.org, (accessed March 15, 2023) Link
“American Liberty Anniversary Elm,” The Historical Marker Database, HMdb.org, (accesses March 13, 2023) Link
“American Liberty Elm,” Landscape America, landscape-america.com, (accessed March 15, 2023) Link
“Liberty Tree Block,” The Marker Database, HMdb.org, (accessed March 15, 2023) Link
Yes
Granite, metal
Town of Coinjock
After the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act in 1765 and having previously passed the Sugar Act and quartering 10,000 British troops in North America, the colonies resisted. One of the first acts of resistance happened in Boston. On the morning of August 14, Bostonians discovered the effigy of Andrew Oliver, a Boston merchant, who had agreed to collect the stamp tax hanging from an elm tree. Next to him dangled a boot, a reference to Lord Bute, the former British prime minister whom many colonists blamed for the act. From that point forward that tree’s power as a symbol of liberty and protest grew with calls to action posted on its trunk. Other towns across the colonies named their own liberty trees to include Providence and Newport, Rhode Island; Norwich, Connecticut; Annapolis, Maryland and Charleston, South Carolina.
The American Liberty elm is named after that famed "Liberty Tree.” The American Liberty elm is a disease-resistant American elm with a pedigree and warranty against Dutch elm disease. The original American elm population having been devastated across the United States in the 1950s and 1960s after the introduction of Dutch elm disease from Asia.
The American Liberty Anniversary Elm is located at the Currituck County Veterans Park at 132 Coinjock Canal Road, Coinjock, NC on the Intercoastal Waterway.
The Currituck County Veterans Park is small and roughly square shaped. The area along Canal Road has a thicket of trees. The section along the waterway where the tree is located is mostly open lawn. The park has a small pavilion and a small artillery piece display.
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