<p>One limb at a time, the locally famous leaning tree came down Thursday.</p><p>For more than 150 years, the leaning tree stood at a 30-degree angle about 3 miles south of Franklin in the 3500 block of Airport Road.</p><p>Because so many residents have fond memories of the tree, the contractor, Ping’s Tree Service, and the Johnson County Highway Department are doing all they can to preserve wood from the tree, said Luke Mastin, highway director.</p><p>As pieces of the tree came down, those larger than five inches in diameter were kept for a potential preservation project, while small or rotten pieces were put into a wood chipper, said Matt Olson, highway deputy director.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>Larger pieces of the tree are being stored at the Johnson County Park for a preservation project that has yet to be determined. </p><p>The highway department is working with the Marc Adams School of Woodworking and Johnson County Parks and Recreation on potential preservation projects, Olson said. To give local woodworkers as many options as possible, the contractor is cutting the tree into large chunks, he said.</p><p>If possible, three or four feet of the tree’s trunk will be kept intact to create a memorial, Mastin said. Whether that can happen will be determined by how rotted and hollow the base is, he said.</p><p>Removal of the tree was initiated after a citizen submitted a formal complaint asking the highway department to look into the safety of the tree. On June 4, Airport Road, also known as Nineveh Road, was closed after an initial inspection determined the tree was unsafe to drive under.</p><p>Later in June, two master arborists determined the tree was at “extreme risk” for falling, according to the arborist’s report.</p><p>The Johnson County Board of Commissioners voted 3-0 to remove the tree on June 21.</p><p>Since then, the highway department has been working on a way to remove the tree safely, due to its proximity to Duke Energy powerlines.</p><p>This week, Duke trimmed back the tree, and the highway department was able to schedule the tree’s removal, nearly three months after it was first deemed unsafe.</p><p>Gary Long has farmed the field next to the tree for 40 years, and grew up just around the corner. Like so many in Johnson County, he has many memories of the tree, he said, but those memories shouldn’t usurp public safety.</p><p>“I’m glad it is being resolved one way or the other. If they say it’s unsafe, it has to come down,” he said.</p><p>Given the tree’s history and public interest in it, he is glad some of it will be saved, Long said.</p><p>“I think we need to do something with it and please as many people as they can,” he said.</p><p>For months, residents have reminisced. Multiple leaning tree fan sites popped up on Facebook in hopes of saving the tree, or at least preserving its memory. Local artists created paintings and photographs.</p><p>Many snuck past the highway department barricades to leave their name on a sign posted at the tree, or for one last picture.</p><p>“We live a few roads over. Glad we went to see it one last time. Very sad to watch it come down,” Alisha Pickerel said.</p><p>Heather Fowler said her daughter’s heart is broken over the tree, her favorite place to visit. Fowler and her daughter were disappointed the tree had to go. They would have liked to see the road moved instead, she said.</p><p>Others were just happy to see the road back open after it was closed for three months.</p><p>“Glad to see this done and behind us so we can get the road open and life back to a little normalcy for our area,” John Canary said.</p><p>The road will reopen as soon as the contractor is finished at the site, likely by the end of the day Friday, Mastin said.</p>
