The Sergeant Alvin York Tulip Poplar stands in Pall Mall, Tennessee, at the home of the man once called “the greatest hero of World War I.”
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Alvin C. York was born in Tennessee in 1887. As a boy, he learned hunting and sharp shooting skills that served him well during the Battle of the Argonne. During the fight, York so intimidated the German forces, they surrendered. With only six companions, York marched 132 German soldiers to the American lines.
French Marshal Ferdinand Foch later said of York, “What you did was the greatest thing accomplished by any private soldier of all the armies of Europe.”
The tree at the Ruth Bowling Nichols Arboretum grew from a seed hand-picked from the Sergeant Alvin York Tulip Poplar in Tennessee.