For Rotary Clubs around the world, 2018 is the “Year of the Tree” and the Great Bend Rotary Club wants to highlight some of the unusual trees in the area. The Great Bend City Council gave permission to the Rotary Club to place a marker next to a Ginkgo tree at the north end of the Barton County Courthouse Square.
The tree variety is also resilient having been one of the few living things that survived in the blast area of the 1945 atom bomb explosion in Hiroshima, Japan.
Great Bend Rotarian Pat Cale noted Ginkgo trees date back 270 million years ago.
Pat Cale Audio
Cale says there are only three known Ginkgoes in Great Bend. One is located at the corner of 16th & Jackson, one at 2611 Broadway, and the one in the Courthouse Square. The tree at the Courthouse was planted in 1940 by Boy Scout Troop 110.
Pat Cale Audio
The marker will allow future generations to know how this odd tree came to its present location. Bell Memorials has prepared 14” x 24” black granite marker that will set in the ground next to the tree.