Off a shady quiet street, just a short stroll from the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain in the historic Mandeville neighborhood of Lewisburg, lives the Seven Sisters Oak.
Beyond being Country Roads readers’ choice for “Most Magnificent Louisiana Live Oak,” the Seven Sisters Oak is also the current president of the Live Oak Society and the national champion live oak tree species in the American Forests’ Big Tree Registry. It shades much of the front yard of John and Mary Jane Becker’s home. For years, the eligibility of the Seven Sisters oak as a Live Oak Society member was disputed because it was believed to be several separate trees growing together. But in 1976, after inspection by federal foresters, the tree was proven to have a single root system and was admitted as a Society member.
After the death of the Society’s first president, the Locke Breaux oak in 1968, the Seven Sister’s Oak was inducted as the Society’s new president in a festive event that was, according to the Live Oak Society records, attended by then-governor of Louisiana John McKeithen. Music for the event was provided by the U.S. Marine Band while a ballet troupe danced around the tree’s roots. Wooden doubloons stamped with an image of the tree were given as souvenirs to those in attendance.
Originally registered with the Society as Doby’s Seven Sisters, the oak’s first sponsor was the Doby family who at that time owned the property on which the tree is located. Mrs. Carole Hendry Doby was one of seven sisters in her family. The name was later officially changed and the tree re-registered as simply the Seven Sisters Oak.
According to the records of American Forests’ Big Tree Registry, the Seven Sisters Oak has a crown spread of 139 feet, a circumference of thirty-nine feet nine inches and a height of sixty-eight feet. Its age has been estimated to be somewhere between 500 and 1200 years old.
Because of its size and the inability to back away from the tree far enough to get a complete top to bottom and side to side view of the Seven Sisters, it’s a challenging tree to photograph. Most of the images that I’ve made are from within the tree’s wide limb spread. Even these fail to give a clear idea of the size of this truly magnificent oak.
William Guion has photographed the landscape and trees of the South for almost thirty years. Through his camera’s lens, he explores the quiet presence, or spirit of place revealed in the changing moods of light on the land. This can be seen most clearly in his ongoing series of images and writings of and about Southern live oak trees. His photographs are included in various corporate and private collections across the country as well as the public collections of the Louisiana Folklife Museum, the Louisiana State Museum and the New Orleans Museum of Art.
Other nominees were:
Afton Villa Oak at Afton Villa Gardens in St. Francisville, La. Andrew Oak at Oak Alley Plantation in Vacherie, La. Etienne de Bore Oak near Audubon Park in New Orleans, La. Seven Brothers or Lastrappes Oak in Washington, La.
