THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 5, 1995 TAG: 9511010049
SECTION: REAL LIFE PAGE: K1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: OBSCURE TOURS
Local landmarks the tour book snever mention
SOURCE: BY EARL SWIFT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
Motorists could be forgiven for overlooking the small cedar tree. Rising from the Interstate 64 median near Mercury Boulevard in Hampton, it sits amid a river of concrete plied by speeding 18-wheelers.
But chances are, folks haven't missed it - because this cedar demonstrates that in the median is the message.
For several years its branches have been decorated with holiday greetings and public-service messages. Last week, it was bedecked with pumpkins. Before that, it bore a fire-safety theme, its crown topped with a ``911'' sign and its lower boughs exhorting passersby to ``learn not to burn.''
July usually sees it plastered with American flags, and February with hearts. Each Christmas finds the little evergreen sheathed in tinsel and ornaments.
These displays have become so familiar to Peninsula travelers that today, the highway cedar is arguably the best-known tree in Hampton, surpassing even such historically significant rivals as Hampton University's Emancipation Oak.
The same cannot be said of the people responsible for the decorations. They have never been publicly identified, and the Virginia Department of Transportation claims it can't name them.
``Haven't heard a name,'' said Quintin Elliott, VDOT's resident engineer in Williamsburg. ``Don't know a name. And if you know the name, don't tell me, because I'd like to find them myself.''
How VDOT has failed to catch folks who've spent years stealing across the Peninsula's busiest stretch of highway is, itself, a mystery - one deepened by Elliott's assertion that the cedar itself ``just appeared'' in the median after an earlier message tree died nearby.
What little is known about the tree-trimmers comes courtesy of a WVEC-TV cameraman, who caught a Peninsula woman and her grown son and daughter between the lanes one night. The three, however, did not give him their names. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
PAUL BATES/The Virginian-Pilot
For several years this tree in the I-64 median in Hampton has been
decorated with greetings and messages. Last week's theme: pumpkins.
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