In what was thought to be a simple review of camera footage over a 24-hour period, may now require a review of the past six months.
On the morning of May 1, Casey Johnson, Secretary of Development, arrived at his office located in the Executive Branch building on the Osage Nation Campus. He immediately noticed the elm tree he had planted in 2014 was on its side, with its trunk snapped. He assumed the tree was the victim of the previous night’s thunderstorm. But upon closer inspection, he noticed a smooth 5-inch cut that could only have come from a reciprocating saw blade.
“They sliced it just enough to where it wouldn’t fall over and nobody would notice the tree had been cut,” Johnson said. “The original Million Dollar Elm died from Dutch elm disease. It just seemed natural to replace it with another elm tree. I paid $250 for the tree and a company came out and planted it.”
The site is marked by a historic marker from the Oklahoma Historical Society. The tree is now a symbol of the Osage Nation’s past and it sits next to the Chief’s Office building.
In 1912, the Bureau of Indian Affairs began having oil lease auctions for the Osage Mineral Estate, with oil barons such as Frank Phillips and E.W. Marland bidding millions of dollars. Fortunes were made, it was a golden era for many, bringing massive wealth and with it greed. All of this took place for years, and it took place under the shade of the giant elm tree. The tree was later dubbed the “Million Dollar Elm.” The tree died in the early 1980s and was removed, but the historic marker remains.
The Osage News asked Cody J. Willard of Tulsa-based Tree Love, LLC, to determine a timeline of events. Willard is an ISA Board Certified Master Arborist and is qualified to be an expert witness and form appraisals.
Willard inspected the trunk and assessed the cut most likely took place six months prior, judging by the discoloration of the wood. He also ruled out the use of a chainsaw and said it was most likely a handheld saw with a reciprocal blade. A DeWalt Sawzall is one of the few brands with a yellow blade, and there was yellow paint left behind on the trunk.
He said it could have happened quickly, as quick as 15 seconds.
“Even the bars on chainsaws, the paint doesn’t leave like that. As far as when this happened, that’s a bit trickier to determine. A lot of times there’s a callus and you can take it to a lab and whatnot. But this is all dried out and desiccated,” Willard said. “But I would say within six months for sure. So it could have been this growing season, it could have been something that happened in the winter. I wouldn’t assume this would have happened any later than last October.”
He said during the spring and summer months the tree would have begun to die quickly due to the cut into its vascular system, even though it was still able to stand with about 40 percent left of its trunk.
“You know, I deal with a lot of vandalism cases, and sometimes it’s just accidental. But a lot of times stuff like this is almost like a fuse, where somebody’s causing damage and hoping in the long run their objectives succeed like it did,” Willard said. “That’s what’s hard, is four to six months goes by and anything on the ground, footprints, I mean, a lot of things just disappear. So it’s like the long game for stuff like this, unfortunately.”
The ON Police Department is currently reviewing surveillance footage from multiple cameras. If you have any information, please call the ONPD at (918) 287-5510.
This story was originally published by Osage News.
