27/02/2026
In Athens, Georgia, there stands a white oak known as the Tree That Owns Itself.
According to local legend, in the early 1800s a man named William Henry Jackson loved the tree so much that he deeded it ownership of itself and the eight feet of land surrounding it. But here’s the factual part: The original 19th-century deed has never been found, and under U.S. law at the time, a tree could not legally own property.
So technically, the tree does not have true legal ownership status. However, the city of Athens and the community have long honored the story symbolically. When the original tree fell in 1942, a new tree — grown from one of its acorns — was planted in the same spot.
It’s often called the “Son of the Tree That Owns Itself.”
