Strong as an oak? Why Savannah's 300-year-old Beauregard Oak reminds us of our frailty

This is a commentary by Mark Murphy, a local author and physician. He is a longtime contributor to the Savannah Morning News.

I’m going to tell you a story about a tree.

It hunkers down by the side of Halsey Road in Savannah's Oakdale neighborhood like it always has, a craggy-trunked behemoth with moss-draped branches spread wide to catch the elusive sun. That massive trunk, deeply ridged, is over eight feet across, as solid as Gibraltar.

The live oak lives at the edge of my mother-in-law’s home on Beauregard Street. I’ve known it as long as I’ve known my wife, which is nearly 50 years now. And despite all that has transpired during that time, the Beauregard Oak seems immortal. It has endured hurricanes, collisions with cars and encounters with wayward power lines with barely a scratch to show for it.

A recent study provided a way to estimate the age of a live oak by trunk circumference. Simply put, the circumference of the tree in inches is roughly equivalent to the tree’s age in years. Live Oaks grow fastest during their first 100 years, slower during the next 100 and ever slower after that.

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Therefore, the larger the tree, the more conservative the growth estimate becomes. Live oaks with circumferences of over 35 feet are rare but are generally felt to be 500-600 years old. Trees with a circumference of over 30 feet are 400-500 years old.

The Beauregard Oak is about 26 feet in circumference. That would make it 312 inches around, dating the tree's first growth to around 1710.

Imagine that if you can wrap your mind around it.

A long life for a huge tree

The Beauregard Oak almost certainly predates Gen. James Oglethorpe’s founding of Savannah in 1733. It was a sturdy source of shade in the maritime forest when British soldiers captured Savannah during the Revolutionary War. A century and a half old by the time of the Civil War, its trunk was already nearly six feet thick when Gen. Robert Lee surrendered to Gen. Ulysses Grant at Appomattox.

The tree has been steadfast through two World Wars and countless other human follies. And it was still standing there when my father and mother-in-law built their home “in the woods” (as my wife’s grandmother Gerald Chan Sieg always put it) in the late 1950s.

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Homosapiens, our species, has been in existence for only about 300,000 years, a tiny fraction of our planet’s 4.5 billion years of existence. Nevertheless, during that short span, mankind has used its vast intellectual capacity to bend the Earth to its will. Although humanity has done many amazing things, not all that progress has been positive.

We have polluted the Earth’s skies and scarred its land, burning fossil fuels over the last 150 years to such an astonishing degree that we have now managed to alter the planet’s very climate. That will be part of our species’ legacy even as we meander into an uncertain future.

But the Beauregard Oak does not care. It has survived everything the universe has thrown at it.

We could all learn a few things from this magnificent tree.

'Steadfast, grounded, and filled with hope'

It’s human nature to maintain an exaggerated sense of our own importance. We perceive crisis at every turn, from casserole failures to electoral defeats.

But the Beauregard Oak knows better.

It has seen our kind come and go for centuries. It knows the petty crises that dominate our lives are nothing more than a shimmering mirage.

The oak has spent over 300 years reaching for the heavens while its massive roots remain twisted deep into the earth. We all would do well to keep our own roots grounded in those vital elements of our existence that truly matter: Love, family, faith and friendship. They are the fertile soil that nourishes us, keeping us upright in the face of adversity.

But we should also continue striving for greater things. Man’s intellect is why he has had such an outsize impact on the planet — but that capacity for reason also affords human beings a tremendous opportunity for good. Like the Oak, we would all do well to keep reaching for the stars even as we subscribe to the “better angels of our nature,” to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln.

We can all be better. We should all do more.

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The Beauregard Oak also lives only for today, never ruminating about the past or worrying about the future. Patient and forgiving, it does not hold grudges or pass judgment.

Again, this is a lesson we could all take to heart.

During my 60 years on this planet, I have been blessed with wonderful parents, the love of an incredible woman, and two amazing children. My profession has afforded the opportunity to make a positive difference in the world.

When I die, I hope that I will have lived a life comparable to that of the Beauregard Oak: Steadfast, grounded, and filled with hope, a meaningful existence rendering tangible dreams of a better tomorrow.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Beauregard Oak tree Savannah is eight feet in diameter 300 years old