The Viroqua Historic Preservation Commission designates 340-year-old tree as Historic Landmark

The Viroqua Historic Preservation Commission announced this week the designation of the Gilman Champion Bur Oak Tree located at 322 W. Broadway St. as a Viroqua Historic Landmark. The tree was named a Champion Bur Oak Tree by DNR Forester Christopher Tall in 2022. The Viroqua City Council approved the designation May 10, 2022 and members of the Commission presented Randy Gilman, the owner of the historic tree, with the Viroqua Historic Designation plaque on May 24.

How it happened:

Commission member Gig Macasaet was contacted by the late Norma Gilman (Randy’s wife) in 2022 about the possibility of naming this tree a historic site to offer it some protection after she had been contacted over the years by people wanting to cut it down for lumber. Macasaet contacted DNR Forester Christopher Tall. Tall estimated the tree to be 73 feet tall with a crown spread of 98 feet, and a measured trunk circumference of 4 feet 5 inches, making it the third largest known bur oak tree in Wisconsin and qualifying it to be a Wisconsin Champion Tree. Tall further estimated that the tree was a seedling in 1685, thus making it 340 years old as of 2025.

“If this tree could only talk it could tell us not only the entire history of Viroqua, but what was happening here for 160 years before Moses Decker made his claim to the land that became Viroqua,” said Commission Member Cyndy Hubbard. “Just think of the stories it could tell.”

Just think of the stories it could tell about the history of Viroqua:

• It witnessed Moses Decker arriving on this prairie in 1845.
• At 180 years old it survived the tornado of 1865, where 27 homes were
  destroyed along with the Methodist Episcopal Church, several businesses, and
  most of South St. leaving 200 people homeless.
• This tree witnessed the stagecoach that ran from Muscoda to La Crosse via
  Viroqua in the 1800’s.
• The Gilman Champion Bur Oak Tree heard the first trains arrive in Viroqua–the
  Milwaukee Road in 1879 on the northeast edge of town, and the La Crosse
  Southeastern in 1905 chugging into town only a few blocks away from the then
  220 year-old tree.
• It was standing tall in Viroqua when the first phone came to town, when electricity
  came to town, when the first cars came to town, etc., etc.
• It has witnessed Viroqua’s population grow from Moses Decker’s family to over
  4,500 people today.
• It has survived 340 years of bad weather, insects, fires, diseases, and possible
  human intervention.

In addition to the plaque, this poem by Aldo Leopold was part of the presentation:

“He who owns a veteran bur oak owns more than a tree. He owns a historical library, and a reserved seat in the theater of evolution. To the discerning eye, his farm is labelled with the badge and symbol of the *Prairie War.” (April: Bur Oak, p. 30. – “A Sand County Almanac,” 1949) (*Prairie War refers to the wildfires that happened and were beneficial to the land and vegetation at the time.)

The mission of the Viroqua Historic Preservation Commission is to protect, enhance and perpetuate sites of special architectural or historic character in Viroqua