One of the greatest traditions in college football will make its triumphant return to the Plains this fall. Almost six years after Alabama fan Harvey Updike poisoned the original Toomer’s oaks, the trees at Toomer’s Corner will be rolled once again.
The 2016 football season will be the first time since the A-Day game on April 22, 2013 that the official Toomer’s Oaks will be rolled. Of course, rolling the corner has continued to take place since the poisoned trees’ removal, with special wires that were installed across the intersection of South College and Magnolia. The surrounding trees have acted as placeholders for the oaks as well. Auburn victories over the past few years have turned the entire greenspace around Samford Hall into a toilet paper-fueled winter wonderland.
Auburn professor of horticulture Gary Keever hopes these new trees will help return a sense of normalcy for Auburn. The new oaks were put in place just one year ago, and they have been through a lot the past few months. Keever and others are still closely monitoring the oaks. The original Magnolia Avenue replacement tree did not show signs of growth last spring, so it was replaced with another oak in July. The trees are still fragile for a few more months, and it’s been quite the process for them.
Keever and other horticulture professionals spent months cleaning out the tainted soil that was poisoned by Updike after the 2010 Iron Bowl. Once the area had been cleared of the poison, it was replaced with a sand-based soil similar to the live oaks’ natural coastal plains habitat. The new trees were provided a larger root-growing area than the previous oaks.
“It’s gonna be like Auburn didn’t miss a beat,” Keever said. “Fans are going to relish the opportunity to get back out on that corner and enjoy the larger plaza. The temporary rolling of the cables across the intersection, that was fine for a short period, but the fans are really going to embrace the new trees.”
To add celebration to the new trees’ arrival, the entire Toomer’s Corner and Samford Park area was redesigned. The Corner officially reopened in August of 2015.
Rolling will recommence in September, with the new trees ready to start a new era in Auburn’s history.
