The Festival of Trees benefiting Mount Sequoyah begins soon. For more than two weeks, there are events showcasing the mountain and all on the mountain. Recently, the co-chairs of the Festival of Trees, Leah Spears-Blackmon and Meredith Lowery, came to the Carver Center for Public Radio. Ozarks At Large as Kyle Kellems wanted to learn more about the events and invited the two of them to be the next participants in an Ozarks At Large quiz.
As for the Festival of Trees, Leah says it’s not just one event, but a series of them.
Leah Spears-Blackmon: And we do that so that we can provide opportunities for people to come up and find a special event or activity that they really are going to enjoy. And the mountain has so much to offer between the trails back on the east side and the arts.
Meredith Lowery: There’s just not one way to capture everything that’s going on there.
Spears-Blackmon: Yeah, and so true to form, we’re starting. This is the first year for the tree topper fun run that Meredith is putting together. Um, and so we’re bringing in the recreational minded and fitness focused part of our community that want to come up there. They run that route anyway. And so we might as well bring it into the series, all the way to a trivia night and cocktails and auctions and everything.
Kyle Kellams: Let’s talk about the tree topper run. Is it a 5K?
Lowery: It’s a one mile. So we weren’t overly ambitious for the first year, though. There was discussion of doing a five K in the future going down the mountain and back. But it’s also November and dark. And so trying to make sure we do a successful event. We’re going to go from the arch around the mountain and back to Miller Lodge. And so it’s perfectly one mile and we’re really excited about it.
Kellams: What is the merry mingle?
Spears-Blackmon: The merry mingle is the official kickoff. Um, and so that’s going to be a happy hour, cocktail hour of sorts. Uh, we’re going to have a pianist playing. There’s a beautiful baby grand in Miller Lodge. And so we’re going to have entertainment and people can get a first look at the auction items that are part of the series. In the past, the auction items have been pre-decorated trees and wreaths that they can take home and they can use in their homes, offices, rentals, whatnot. Um, this year we’re switching it up a little bit and we’re going to have experiences and packages, um, of items to bid on, um, throughout the series. And so the merry mingle is the kickoff. It’s the first preview and the first evening that you get to start your bidding.
Kellams: All right. So the 13th is the, run the 14th, 15th, you got Santa. You can bring everyone in the family.
Spears-Blackmon: Yep.
Kellams: 18th is holiday trivia night?
Spears-Blackmon: Yep. And it is. You can get a table for an eight person team, and it is going to be a holiday trivia evening. Judge John Threet is going to be the host for that evening, and it’s going to be a great night. That also is new to this year’s series.
Kellams: All right. We’re going to talk about what this raises money for and the other events. But this is time for a quiz.
Spears-Blackmon: Okay.
Kellams: It’s the Festival of Trees. We have questions about trees. Now, here’s how the Ozarks At Large quizzes work. You’re a team. You’re not against each other. So you can work together. And you shouldn’t feel bad if you don’t get these. These are not designed to be, ‘Oh, you’re smart or not’. The name Mason Locke Weems is is significant in legendary tree lore because… And these are multiple choice. Mason Locke Weems was..
A) the real name of Johnny Appleseed, who, of course, went across the the eastern part of the country spreading apple seeds
B) the name of the character that went from a boy to an elderly man in The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
C) the inventor of the George Washington cherry tree story? You know the myth that he cut, he damaged his father’s cherry tree and couldn’t tell a lie.
D) a neighbor of J.R. Tolkien when he was a child, and it was the inspiration for the old man Willow character in Lord of the Rings.
Spears-Blackmon: I want it to be D
Lowery: See, I was thinking that seemed the least likely because it’s the most romanticized. Well, I don’t also remember that character, but also I was going more towards C.
Spears-Blackmon: Okay, we’ll do C, the inventor of the George Washington cherry tree.
Kellams: That is correct,
Spears-Blackmon: Meredith. Nice. Good guessing.
Kellams: Early nineteenth century, he wanted an example for young Americans to always be morally upright. And he, completely out of thin air, invented the George Washington cherry tree story.
Spears-Blackmon: Incredible. Well done.
Kellams: There are five questions. You’re one. You’re ahead one, nothing.
Lowery: Okay, we didn’t ask what we win, but that’s okay.
Kellams: Pride. All right. Where in Fayetteville can you find these Arkansas champion trees and Arkansas champion tree is a certain species of tree that’s either the tallest or the oldest or something like that. All right. There was a 51-foot tall dawn redwood and a 69-foot tall persimmon tree. These are Arkansas champion trees, the tallest of the species in the state. Would you find these trees both in Wilson Park, both on the Lawn of the Headquarters House, both on the University of Arkansas campus, or both alongside Interstate 49?
Lowery: I mean, I, immediately think Old Main Lawn.
Spears-Blackmon: Yeah, that’s what I would go with because it’s got every tree.
Lowery: I just don’t know if they’re tall enough, but I feel like not 49. That seems dicey.
Spears-Blackmon: It does seem dicey. We’re going to go with campus.
Kellams: It’s Wilson Park, just down the hill.
Spears-Blackmon: Just down the hill.
Kellams: Yeah, I, I 49 was the last one thrown in there. Like surely they won’t say that. All right. So it’s one to one. That’s all right. Third question. In the 1970s song ‘Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree’ by Tony Orlando and Dawn. It’s about a man coming home from prison to see if his lover still wants him to be part of her life at the end. How many yellow ribbons are tied around the old tree? Spoiler alert she does want him. Is it…
A) one yellow ribbon
B) five yellow ribbons
C) one hundred yellow ribbons
D) one thousand yellow ribbons?
Spears-Blackmon: My mother’s going to hear this and be screaming. Screaming the answer.
Lowery: I didn’t realize he came from prison.
Kellams: So it’s not really specified because of course, it then became about the hostages and it kind of became a ubiquitous returning-home symbol. But it was intended to be a story about a guy coming home on the bus from prison.
Lowery: I guess one, but…
Spears-Blackmon: I was going to say a thousand.
Kellams: Maybe a champion tree could do a thousand. But so he’s he’s, you know, he’s told her in a letter, you know, if you want me to get off the bus and come to you, put a yellow ribbon. If not, I’ll just keep on going. So one would just be like, yeah, I kind of want you. So it’s probably more than one.
Lowery: Maybe it is one hundred. We’re gonna go with C again.
Spears-Blackmon: Let’s go with C, it’s one hundred.
Kellams: Very good. Nice. You’re up two to one. Okay. We’ll have two more questions. But first, let’s continue with what’s happening with the Festival of Trees. We got up through the holiday trivia night on November 18. What happens after that?
Lowery: We have the pinpoint pop up, so both counts will be up on the mountain with signature drinks on November 20, and this should be a fun event that tends to be a very popular one. And then we have the tree auction on November 21.
Kellams: So let’s talk about the tree auction, how that works.
Spears-Blackmon: It’s the final night. Um, and when you’ve been bidding through this series, this holiday series, um, that evening is the conclusion. And, um, our famous emcee, Sunshine, who everyone loves around town–
Kellams: Sunshine Broder. Yes.
Spears-Blackmon: Yes, is going to be there. And we are going to have some of the pre-decorated trees that everyone loves and, um, is excited to see, as well as some wreaths. And so she will have some pre-decorated items that people can take to their homes, businesses and things of that sort. So um, that’s the conclusion. We hope that it is a big blowout. And um, it’s, it’s going to wrap up that long series. The actual final event that’s not associated with the auction that also is very, very popular in town and in northwest Arkansas is the arts market. And it's a way to shop local. It brings up all of the local artists that have wonderful gifts for Christmas, and it is completely, as far as vendors, completely sold out. Everyone wants to be up there, so it’s a great place to do some Christmas shopping, some holiday shopping, uh, plan on the arts market. And that’s November 29.
Kellams: And this is all raising money for–
Spears-Blackmon and Lowery: Mount Sequoyah.
Kellams: Yeah, the bidding is a couple weeks long. And you do this online.
Spears-Blackmon: Mhm. Yes. So you can sign up at Merry Mingle November 14. Um and you basically keep track of it through an app. We are going to have some options for some paper bidding on some of the items and to give people some options. I know that there are preferences, uh, of how to do that. So, uh, but yeah, it lasts for several days, and so it’s a way for you to keep up. It’s a way to see if someone has outbid you so you can circle back and try to win your item.
Kellams: Okay, let’s get back to the quiz. You’re up two to one.
Lowery: Okay.
Kellams: All right. Familiar with Wizard of Oz?
Lowery: Yes.
Kellams: Okay. You know, in the movie, there are those trees, the talking trees that throw the apples. All right. In the movie, they get away from the trees by just kind of leaving. Remember, the Scarecrow taunts them, they throw some apples, and they were hungry. And so they outsmart the trees. In the book by Frank L. Baum, they meet what are called fighting trees. How do they get away from them? Number one, does the Scarecrow revealing that he does, in fact have a brain, give them a riddle that allows Dorothy and her friends to go into the Enchanted Forest because they answer the riddle correctly? Two, does the Tin Man just take his axe and chop off their branches? Three Does the witch show up and accidentally set the trees on fire? or four. Does Toto bother them so much with his barking that they wave Dorothy and her friends all the way through. This is in the book.
Lowery: We watched Wicked the other night. I’m going to get in so much trouble because I kept talking about the book and how that related.
Kellams: And there were many, many books that Frank Baum wrote, like more than two dozen.
Lowery: Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
Kellams: But this is from the first one.
Spears-Blackmon: Gut reaction. Before Kyle started reading, it was fire. But also, I can’t remember the witch doing that.
Lowery: I know. I’m gonna go. I mean, the Tin Man has an axe. Yeah, let’s go with that.
Spears-Blackmon: It’s the Tin Man. He cuts off a branch with an axe.
Kellams: Nice. All right. You’re up three to one, which means you’ve already won the quiz. But you got one more. You could be in rare air here. And when four of the five. The largest tree in Arkansas is an American bald cypress. It’s located in the Dale Bumpers White River National Wildlife Refuge. It’s thought to be about one thousand years old. It’s one hundred and twenty feet tall. What’s the circumference? Is the circumference…
A) thirteen feet around
B) twenty-three feet around
C) thirty-three feet around
D) forty-three feet around?
An American bald cypress that’s one hundred and twenty feet tall. Maybe a thousand years old.
Lowery: Forty-three seems too much. I want everything to be big. All the ribbons. All the ribbons on the tree.
Kellams: This tree could have a thousand yellow ribbons. They’d have to be pretty big ribbons.
Spears-Blackmon:Okay, twenty-three. Okay,
Kellams: Forty-three feet. Can you imagine? It is insane, isn’t it?
Spears-Blackmon: That is wild. I can’t even picture that. Thanks for the trivia quiz.
Kellams: Well, we’ve got to see that tree. And we’ve got to see all the things that are up for auction at the Festival of Trees on Mount Sequoyah. Again, the run is on November 13, and that’s an evening run, right?
Lowery: It is.
Kellams: What time does that start?
Lowery: 5:30 p.m.
Kellams: The merry mingle, which is a kickoff on the 14th. Everything else. The run is obviously outside. Everything else is in Miller Lodge. Everything is in Miller Lodge.”
Spears-Blackmon:Yes, and Mount Sequoyah, go to the events tab. You can find this beautiful menu of all of these wonderful events. This is the annual fundraiser for operations for Mount Sequoyah. And Meredith and I have been talking to friends and, uh, returning sponsors and new friends of the mountain. And the whole premise is to protect it and preserve it. So, um, you’ll be doing a very good deed by coming up and visiting and spending some money on some tickets to some really wonderful events.
Kellams: And where can people see the complete schedule?
Spears-Blackmon: It is at MountSequoyah.org.
Kellams: All right. Thank you both. Congratulations on winning the quiz.
Lowery: Woo-hoo! Thank you.
Spears-Blackmon: Thanks, Kyle.
Leah Spears Blackmon and Meredith Lowery are co-chairs of the 2025 Festival of Trees on Mount Sequoyah.
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