Historical Name: Lindbergh
Common Name: Red Maple
Latin Name: Acer rubrum
Charles A. Lindbergh was born in Detroit, Michigan on February 4, 1902. His father practiced law in Little Falls, Minnesota, where Charles spent his childhood years. He fondly recalled his early days on the family farm. “I spent hours lying on my back in high timothy and red top” he wrote, “watching white cumulus clouds drift overhead. How wonderful it would be, I thought, if I had an airplane – wings with which I could…ride on the wind and be part of the sky.” The dawn of aviation entranced him from youth even though his family discouraged a career as an airman. Lindbergh is most remembered for his brave solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean which began on May 20, 1927 and finished in Paris the following day. Years later, the highly publicized kidnapping and murder of his infant son in Hopewell, New Jersey was a deep tragedy. This tree grew from a seed taken from the Charles Lindbergh Red Maple that stands at his boyhood home in Little Falls, Minnesota. It was planted into UCNJ’s Historic Tree Grove in 1997.
(text adapted from American Forests)