It took acres of sail to move a big 18th century ship and multiple wooden masts to support the sails. The ideal lumber for a mast was the trunk of a big Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus).
Harvesting these immense and valuable American trees was a challenge. Loggers would first clear a drop zone for the tree and build a cradle of brush at one end. When the tree fell, the cradle would cushion the fall and prevent the tree from splintering on impact. If a tree was cut down close to a river, it could be rolled into the water and floated to a port. If not, teams of oxen would drag the fallen giant out of the forest.
As forests along the eastern seaboard were cleared, the British passed laws to reserve large white pines for the Royal Navy, marking the trees to signify that they were the property of the Crown. Not only did a sailing ship require as many as eleven masts and sub-masts to support its sails, but a ship usually needed replacement timber to fix masts damaged over the course of a voyage. Without big white pines, how was Great Britain supposed to maintain its navy, and without a navy, how was it supposed to maintain its empire?
Laws against harvesting mast pines were mostly ignored until the 1760s, when New Hampshire governor John Wentworth decided to step up enforcement. Violent confrontations between British officials and American colonists ensued.
The most famous conflict over white pine arose in Weare, New Hampshire, in 1772, when a group of sawmill owners were caught with illegally harvested trees in their possession. Sheriff Benjamin Whiting and his deputy John Quigley were dispatched to Weare to arrest the mill owners unless they paid their fines. Most of the mill owners quickly paid or, in the case of mill owner Ebenezer Mudgett, promised to pay soon. The officials returned to their inn, apparently unaware that news of their arrival had spread throughout the town and plans were afoot.
The next morning, Ebenezer Mudgett and a mob of twenty men, their faces blackened with charcoal and armed with wooden switches and poles, burst into the inn where Whiting and Quigley were staying and beat both men to the point that Whiting feared for his life. The mob jeered as the beaten, humiliated officials rode out of town.
The men of the Weare mob were ultimately arraigned and paid a light fine. Their act of vigilante justice (or injustice, depending on your viewpoint!), helped to set the stage for the Revolution and was likely an inspiration for the Boston Tea Party, which took place one year later. Proof that the Pine Tree Riot was well-known at the time of the Revolution is that the pine served as the emblem of the 1775 “An Appeal to Heaven” banner flown by the first American naval fleet.
You can observe a total of 54 white pines planted in the Arboretum with most of these located in the Pollinator and Bird Garden, just outside the Childhood’s Gate Children’s Garden, around the Event Lawn, and in the Marsh Meadow. The majority of these are standard Eastern white pines (Pinus strobus) but there are also two white pine cultivars: Pinus strobus ‘Pendula’ (semi-dwarf weeping form) and Pinus strobus ‘Fastigiata’ (upright and narrow columnar form). Larger specimens can be found in the Hartley Wood, and they are definitely large! A mature specimen will commonly grow 150 feet tall, with a diameter of 5 feet.
Learn More About Plants of the American Revolution
Virtual Revolutionary War Plants Tour
Available through the Arboretum Explorer tool.
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America 250 Plant Walk
Thursday, July 9, 4:00–5:00 p.m.
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America 250 Plant Walk
Thursday, July 30, 4:00–5:00 p.m.
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