As part of its participation in UT’s bicentennial, the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources utilized a donated cross section of the George E. French white pine tree (named for the founder of the Atlantic Timber Company in Boston), which began growing in 1595, to pinpoint significant university events on the rings of the tree by placing informational flags on the tree rings. The tree was believed to be the largest Eastern white pine in the nation when Vestal Lumber Company harvested it on November 17, 1948. The cross section (broken off from 1904 on by aging) was donated to UT in 1948. The tree grew on Rich Mountain in Unicoi County and measured more than 6 feet in diameter with a circumference of 19 feet. A storm had blown off the top section of the tree before it was harvested.
Paul Winisdorffer, assistant professor of forestry, created the exhibit. On December 5 members of the campus organization Students Promoting Environmental Action in Knoxville (SPEAK) held a funeral for the tree, saying that the death of the tree was neither necessary nor beautiful, and criticized the institution particularly for inclusion of a picture of several men standing around the eight sections of the harvested tree. SPEAK member Keith Blasing served as funeral orator, and Angela Nevils played the flute.