Bicentennial Moon Tree

This tree is a small souvenir of the space age. Its seeds rode to the moon and back aboard Apollo 14 in 1971, carried by astronaut Stuart Roosa, a former smokejumper, as an experiment and a tribute to the forests. Back on Earth, the Forest Service germinated the seeds and gave away the seedlings, and this one was planted for the nation's bicentennial. A handful of these moon trees still grow around the country, ordinary-looking survivors of an extraordinary trip a quarter-million miles out and back.

What the plaque says

This seedling was grown from the very seeds that journeyed to the moon and back on board Apollo 14. It symbolizes the major role forests played in developing our American heritage and the vital role forests have in our future. This planting made possible by the State Forester of Arizona, the U.S. Forest Service, and NASA.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tucson — 1.7 mi
  The Old Pueblo — four thousand years of farming under the sky islands
• Mission San Xavier del Bac — 9.3 mi
  The White Dove of the Desert — the finest Spanish Baroque church in the country
• Saguaro National Park — 20 mi
  The giant cactus, and the O'odham who count it as kin

More markers nearby

• Coronado Hotel — 1.2 mi
• Camp Lowell 1866-1873 — 1.5 mi
• Court Street — 1.6 mi
• August 20th Park — 1.6 mi