Tall Tales: The Mighty Oak of Rochester Road Remembered

Any driver heading south down Rochester Road more than likely noticed an oak tree estimated to be 125-150 years old growing over the curb just south of Wagner Park. Now gone, at it's base the majestic tree's trunk once measured 10-feet.

Last May, City Engineer Matt Callahan estimated the tree had violated the best practices of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) for more than two decades. According to AASHTO, anything within 18-inches of a roadway is a hazard, Callahan said, so the tree came down.

Don Bishop, who is retired, sat on a lawn chair drinking a Manhattan for most of day on May 31 taking pictures of the tree that kept him busy since 1986.

"I have never mowed the lawn or shoveled snow without picking up a door handle, mirror or some piece of a headlight," Bishop said last May. "Once I found the handle grip of a motorcycle."

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