Last week, we received a message via Twitter from Steve of Indianapolis. Steve has just visited Lincoln State Park for the very first time and sent us this amazing photo (see below) he took of Lincoln State Park’s “Moon Tree”. It is perhaps fitting that the photo shows our solar system’s very own star and life force, the sun, casting a long shadow across the grass, given this sycamore tree’s long and unique journey to Lincoln. If you aren’t familiar with the “Moon Tree” read on to learn the full story.

On January, 31, 1971, NASA launched Apollo 14 which was the third trip to the moon by the U.S. space program. The Apollo 14 crew consisted of Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, and Stuart Roosa. Shepard and Mitchell would land and walk on the lunar surface while Roosa remained in the command module “Kitty Hawk” orbiting above.

Roosa was a former U.S. Forest Service smoke jumper and stowed away in his personal kit were 400-500 tree seeds as part of a joint project between NASA and the U.S. Forest Service. Seeds from five different types of trees were selected for the journey to the moon and back: Loblolly Pine, Sycamore, Sweetgum, Redwood and Douglas Fir. Once the seeds returned to Earth, they were germinated by the Forest Service and planted throughout the United States as part of the celebration of the U.S. bicentennial in 1976.

On May 1, 1976, a sycamore tree seedling from Apollo 14 was planted by the Raintree Council Girl Scouts in Lincoln State Park below the dam near the old Nature Center building.

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44 year later, the tree is still healthy and growing. Will this Moon Tree survive to see our next in-person visit to our lunar neighbor? Only time will tell. Next time you’re at the park, take a few minutes to find the Moon Tree and check it out.

Some information for this article was taken from the NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. You can read and learn more at https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/moon_tree.html.

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