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Show j EDITORIALS I Please, Mr. Axman, Spare That Tree ! Have you ever seen a turkey that has lost ! its feathers or a sheep right after it has been shorn? Somehow there is a striking resem- blance between them and SpringviUe's Main Street. ! It has not always looked that way but in ; the past few days it has undergone the same i treatment as that of many other streets in ; town in years gone by and more than 25 large i trees have been removed. Planted nearly a i hundred years ago, some of them stood as pio-' pio-' neer landmarks of early settlement days and : people of this Art City pointed to them with pride and pleasure. An order for removal of the trees came , from city officials to conform with a state road commission ruling before new lights could be installed. Many are asking why the trees could not have been trimmed and many ; locations have been cited in other cities with ;.; trees and lights on the same street. But not in ; Springville. . A beautiful Sycamore, Black Walnuts, ii English Walnuts, Black Locust, Honey Locust j and Norweigon Maple, to name only a few, ; have all fallen victims of a fad. And a caption jj in a newspaper story several years ago stat-i stat-i ing that "Springville Preserves Its Pioneer j Trees' is rather outdated. But let us not cry over spilled milk, the trees are dead, cut down and hauled away, but 1 there still remains one, just one on Main Street. ; When the axmen approached the Old Cot-j ! tonwood this week they had not reckoned with jt the wrath of the women the Daughters of Utah Pioneers. And these ladies have the back- j ing of most of the townspeople in preserving j this pioneer landmark. This tree was standing 107 years ago, , when a small group of weary travelers, led by I Captain Aaron Johnson reached this valley. It I was the only tree of any size in this area. To-j To-j day, over a century later, it still stands digni-j digni-j fied and unchanged, watching the rushing j world go by. j It is reported that Bishop Johnson signed j a peace treaty with the Indians beneath its ; branches. Brigham Young paused to rest in its shade as he traveled to St. George. Throughout Through-out the years, it has welcomed tired travelers with open arms, its branches spread to form a huge "Y." Beloved by everyone, it was marked by the DUP in 1935, after a bitter battle saved it in the wake of curb and gutter installations. Now the battle has begun anew and while j we will miss the beauty in the spring and the I shade in the summer, of Main Street's stately j trees, we feel that this old Cottonwood must be ! preserved at any price. |