01 Big Round Top Trailhead Tree
How to Find Witness Tree 01
Drive down South Confederate Avenue until you reach the beginning of the trail to the summit of Big Round Top. Park in one of the parking spaces. Climb the old granite steps. About 25 feet from the steps, Witness Tree 01 stands on the right side of the path.
What This Tree Witnessed
Confederates from the Alabama Brigade – perhaps the 4th Alabama in particular – passed by Witness Tree 05 on their way to attack Little Round Top. Many of those men would retreat this way as well at the battle’s conclusion – if they survived.
Witness Tree 01 Statistics
Tree Species: white oak
Circumference 2023: 102”
Diameter: 32.5”
Estimated age: 200-210 years
Estimated diameter in 1863: 6-8”
Then-and-Now Comparison
Witness Tree 01, a white oak, tree appears in several photographs taken in the later winter and early spring of 1940, when the new trail to the summit of Little Round Top was constructed.
Witness Tree 01 can easily be identified in the historical photograph of the brand-new steps connecting South Confederate Avenue to the newly-constructed trail which leads visitors still today to the summit of Big Round Top. The large branch extending from the trunk at a 45-degree angle (label “A”) can be matched up in the images. The ornamental stone walls around the top and bottom of the steps have long disappeared.
Other Photos
The beginning of the long and sinuous trail to the summit. Witness Tree 01 is on the right.
Quarry marks are visible on one of the steps.
The stairs are in remarkably good shape 85 years after they were built.
A sensational photograph from March 1940 captures men from Gettysburg’s Conservation Civilian Corps landscaping the area around the brand-new steps on South Confederate Avenue. The CCC team at Gettysburg was comprised of all African-American men. Witness Tree 01 can be seen rising behind the 6th man from the left, who is standing up straight and apparently looking at the cameraman.