CUMBERLAND — Before American citizens could freely walk the streets of their hometown in protest, colonists would gather under a Liberty Tree as a rallying point to protest against the British rule. In preparation for the country’s 250th anniversary in July, a Liberty Tree was planted at Cumberland’s Canal Place on Friday.
“It is all about freedom and liberty,” said Francis “Champ” Zumbrun, forester and Allegany County Forestry Board member. “The folks that secured our freedom and liberty go back to the birth of our nation.
“It didn’t matter what class you were in — farmers, lawyers, doctors, politicians. They organized to protest British parliament.”
The Liberty Tree lived through it all, Zumbrun said.
The Maryland Liberty Tree Project is a statewide initiative marking the 250th anniversary of American independence in 2026 by planting genetically identical descendants of Maryland’s original 1775 Liberty Tree in all 23 counties and Baltimore City, Preservation Maryland Director of Communications Dana Cohen said.
“This is a statewide 250th anniversary commemorative project,” said Cohen. “Maryland had the forethought to take the scion and make the seedlings.”
The initiative is a partnership between Preservation Maryland, the Maryland Center for History and Culture, the Southern Maryland National Heritage Area and the Maryland Heritage Areas Coalition, with support from the Maryland250 Commission, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, St. John’s College, Davey Tree Expert Co., the Maryland Forestry Foundation and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
Cohen said that planting the trees is about bringing people together across Maryland in a unique and meaningful way.
Friday’s ceremony is preparation for a July 4 celebration where a plaque will be placed at the site, said Kimberly Folk, marketing and media director for Canal Place Preservation and Development Authority.
Adam Miller, Maryland Department of Natural Resources Forest Service and county forestry board member, planted the tree in the area of the canal boat.
Miller demonstrated for the attendees the best way to plant a tree for it to prosper, describing the depth of the hole needed, ensuring the tree is straight, applying topsoil and mulch.
“It’s wonderful to be able to honor the history of our nation, celebrating the 250th year,” Cumberland Mayor Ray Morriss said, “to be able to take a scion of the Liberty Tree planted in Annapolis all those years ago and honor all the hard work and dedication of the people over the years that have made this country what is today.”
Maryland’s Liberty Tree was a massive tulip poplar that stood on the campus of St. John’s College in Annapolis, Zumbrun said.
“Samuel Chase and William Paca, who later signed the Declaration of Independence, and Western Maryland’s own Thomas Cresap, elected delegate to the General Assembly from 1757 to 1770, are also believed to have met beneath Maryland’s Liberty Tree canopy,” Zumbrun said. “Back then, you could have been put to death by going against the king’s ruling.”
Maryland’s tree is connected to the who’s who of the American Revolution, according to Zumbrun. American revolutionaries advocated for independence from Great Britain during the Stamp Act of 1765. The trees were a gathering place for Sons of Liberty groups throughout the American colonies.
“From these meetings, the seeds of the American Revolution were planted,” Zumbrun said.
According to the Allegany County Forestry Board, Maryland’s tree stood silent witness from several blocks away when George Washington resigned his military commission as commander in chief of the Continental Army Dec. 23, 1783, at the State House.
Francis Scott Key, author of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” walked under the branches of the Liberty Tree in the 1790s while a student at St. John’s College.
“Maryland’s original Liberty Tree died in 1999 after Hurricane Floyd impacted the area,” Zumbrun said. “It was approximately 400 years old.”
The forestry board said it was the last surviving Liberty Tree of the original 13 colonies, and at one time was the largest known of its species in the United States, standing 124 feet high with a circumference of 26 feet and a spread of 117 feet.
“In 1889, a scion was taken from Maryland’s Liberty Tree, (with the) exact same DNA, so the Liberty Tree still lives today,” Zumbrum said.
Miller said, “a scion is a detached, dormant bud taken from a tree to be grafted onto a different rootstock. This technique propagates an exact clone of the parent tree.”
Forestry board volunteers collected seeds from the scion at St. John’s College and sent them to be germinated at the John S. Ayton State Tree Nursery in Maryland.
“They come back as seedlings two years later,” Zumbrum explained.
Zumbrum said there was an excess of the seedlings around 2016, so the forestry board had to find appropriate places to plant them in Allegany County.
He said they were planted in Green Ridge State Forest, at Rocky Gap State Park, the C&O Canal and the LaVale Library to ensure public access.
“The Liberty Tree is a living symbol that connects us directly to the American Revolution. A symbol of stability, longevity … it is rooted and going to last,” Zumbrun said.