It was an ordinary day. There is a fellow in the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania named Len Eiserer who is a collector of trees and tree tales! In Lancaster city, there's a ginkgo tree that's grown big enough to be a state champion, but it's size isn't what most impresses Len Eiserer. This tree's pedigree is also worth noting: It was planted nearly 130 years ago to honor the sudden death of a young scholar, far from his home in Japan and his family who were among the last of the samurai. The tree's old in human years, but its endurance is what captivates Len, a collector of tree tales. Trees like this live thousands of years. "These trees will outlast the city of Lancaster, America. I mean, the republic of Rome was 900 years," he says. "These are permanent living monuments, cultural monuments. When you know the history, that surpasses anything else you find in Lancaster." This ginkgo and its brethren trees can be admired for their size, their beauty, their shade and their fruit in some cultures. They've also inspired Lancaster's newest arboretum. The space has more than 120 trees, including a bald cypress that might be a souvenir from a World's Fair and a state champion European horse chestnut. Admission is free and the residents are quiet! Lancaster Cemetery is now celebrating its new designation as an arboretum as of Saturday, October 12. Lancaster Cemetery was founded in 1846 by the First Reformed Church and later became nondenominational. The space stretches over 22 acres in northeast Lancaster city, between New Holland and Park Avenues. The cemetery's entrance is hard to miss; it was designed by Lancaster's own C. Emlen Urban. Also hard to miss are the cemetery's trees, which have enough space for many to grow quite large. The cemetery board talked about the beauty of the trees and explored what it takes to become an arboretum. There is a category just for cemeteries, including Arlington National Cemetery, which covers 639 acres. Arlington is actually an arboretum. The cemetery in Lancaster already met some of the criteria, including having a governing board, having public access and having at least 25 species, varieties or cultivars of trees or woody plants. A local tree group counted 125 varieties to create the required arboretum plan. Hopefully, the trees and honor of becoming an arboretum could bring people to explore one of Lancaster's largest green spaces. It has been said that cemeteries are for the living! The list of trees includes fruit trees and trees large enough to be champions. What's missing, though, is why they were planted. Ten ginkgo trees can be traced to George Kinzo Kaneko who came to Lancaster from Japan as a teenager to study at Franklin & Marshall Academy, a college prep school in the mid-1880s. Mr. Kaneko was buried in Franklin & Marshall's college plot in Lancaster Cemetery. Later, ginkgo trees were sent from Japan to the college and the cemetery in his honor. The male trees grew uninterrupted at the cemetery while the female trees planted at the college produced fruit with a stone smell and made the ground slippery. These trees were eventually moved to the cemetery with the others. Those original trees have multiplied to 10. Some bear fruit, but that hasn't been a problem at the cemetery. Shortly another ginkgo tree will be planted in honor of Mr. Kaneko in the cemetery. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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