Friendship Oak

Friendship Oak is a 500-year-old southern live oak (Quercus virginiana) located on the Gulf Park campus of the University of Southern Mississippi in Long Beach, Mississippi. The campus was formerly Gulf Park College for Women from 1921 until 1971. Friendship Oak dates from the year 1487, and was a sapling at the time that Christopher Columbus first discovered the New World. According to legend, those who enter the shade of its branches will remain friends for all their lives. In the 1920s, poet Vachel Lindsay taught at Gulf Park College for Women and read poetry to students beneath the branches of Friendship Oak. Friendship Oak was the 110th tree to be registered with the Live Oak Society.At the time of registration (circa 1940), the tree's trunk circumference was 14 feet (4.3 m). In 1950, the oak was featured in a Life magazine article about Gulf Park College, where students attended classes under the tree.