Moon Tree
Salem, Marion County, Oregon
Marker Inscription
This Douglas-fir was raised from seed carried to the|moon by astronaut Stuart Roosa of the Apollo 14|space mission in 1971. It was the first "Moon Tree" to|be planted in Oregon and was planted here by|Governor Bob Straub on Arbor Day, April 30, 1976
The Story
This Douglas-fir grew from a seed that orbited the Moon aboard Apollo 14 in 1971, carried by astronaut Stuart Roosa, a former smokejumper. Hundreds of these "Moon Tree" seeds were later germinated and planted across the country, and this one was set here by Oregon's governor on Arbor Day in 1976. It links a living tree to one of humanity's great journeys.
Why it matters
The Moon Trees turned the Space Age into something rooted and local, connecting ordinary communities to the triumph of Apollo.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
By the early 1970s, the United States had done something that would have seemed like pure fantasy only a generation earlier: it had sent human beings to the Moon and brought them home. The Apollo program was the culmination of the Space Age, a decade-long national effort that turned the science-fiction dream of lunar travel into a series of real missions, each carrying astronauts across a quarter-million miles of empty space.
Apollo 14, which flew in 1971, was one of those journeys. It came at a moment when Americans were still absorbing the astonishing fact that people could walk on another world — and looking for ways to make that vast achievement feel connected to ordinary life back on Earth. One of the more inspired answers took the form of trees.
Oregon, with its deep culture of forests and conservation, was fertile ground for such a gesture. Half a decade after the mission, in the nation's bicentennial year, one of these remarkable trees found a home in Salem — a living bridge between the state's woodland heritage and humanity's reach into space.
People & events
The marker tells a story almost too charming to be true, yet it is true. This Douglas-fir was raised from a seed carried to the Moon by astronaut Stuart Roosa aboard the Apollo 14 mission in 1971. Roosa, who remained in orbit around the Moon while his crewmates walked on its surface, carried a container of tree seeds with him — and those seeds, having traveled to the Moon and back, were later germinated into seedlings.
The result was a set of trees that came to be called Moon Trees. According to the inscription, this one was the first Moon Tree to be planted in Oregon, and it was set here by Governor Bob Straub on Arbor Day, April 30, 1976. The pairing of details is delightful: a governor, a state holiday devoted to trees, and the nation's two-hundredth birthday year, all converging on the planting of a seedling that had once orbited the Moon.
So the event this marker commemorates is not a launch or a landing but a planting — a quiet ceremony in Salem in which the extraordinary and the ordinary met, and a piece of the Apollo story took root in Oregon soil.
Its place in the American story
The Moon Trees are one of the loveliest footnotes to the American space program, and their significance is precisely that they made an unimaginable achievement feel local and alive. Apollo was a triumph of technology and national will, but it unfolded far away, on screens and in headlines. A Moon Tree brought it down to earth — literally — so that a community could stand beside a living thing that had, in a sense, been to the Moon.
Seeds from Apollo 14 were germinated and planted in communities across the country, turning a singular national feat into hundreds of small, rooted connections. Each tree let ordinary Americans touch the Space Age in their own town, without a telescope or a NASA badge. In that way the Moon Trees democratized a wonder that might otherwise have stayed remote.
That this one was planted in 1976, the bicentennial year, deepens its meaning. At a moment when the nation was reflecting on two centuries of its history, a tree grown from a lunar-traveled seed spoke to the future as much as the past — a symbol of American reach and ambition, growing quietly in an Oregon city.
If you visit
Come to see the Moon Tree knowing that its magic is invisible at first glance. To any passerby it looks like an ordinary Douglas-fir, and that is exactly the delight of it — you are standing beside a living organism grown from a seed that orbited the Moon. Let that fact reframe the whole tree before you.
Read the marker and savor the specifics: an astronaut named in the inscription, a governor's own hands planting the seedling, an Arbor Day date in the bicentennial spring. Few historic markers manage to be at once this humble and this cosmic, and the contrast between the quiet setting and the astonishing backstory is the heart of the experience.
This makes a wonderful stop on a Salem visit, especially for families and anyone with a love of space or the outdoors. It is the rare monument that is also alive and still growing — a chance to look up into the branches of a Douglas-fir and think about how far its journey began. Give it a moment, and let it connect your own patch of ground to one of humanity's greatest adventures.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Stuart Roosa
- · Governor Bob Straub
Related events
- · Apollo 14 mission
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Corvallis Apollo 14 Moon Tree
Corvallis, OR
This tree began as a seed flown around the Moon during the Apollo 14 mission in 1971, part of an experiment to test whether the journey would affect its germination. The seeds returned to Earth and were grown into seedlings distributed as "Moon Trees," and this Corvallis tree is one of them. It stands as a quiet monument to space-age curiosity.
Challenger Memorial Rose Garden
Washington County, OR
This rose garden was dedicated in April 1986, weeks after the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart shortly after launch on January 28, 1986, killing all seven aboard. Its plaque lists the crew—including teacher Christa McAuliffe, chosen to be the first ordinary citizen in space—and carries her words, "I touch the future; I teach." The disaster was witnessed live by millions of schoolchildren.
Site of Wilkes Observatory
DuPont, WA
Built in 1841, this building housed observations made during the United States Exploring Expedition, the great naval and scientific survey led by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes. The expedition charted Pacific coasts and islands and gathered specimens that helped seed the young nation's scientific institutions. A later marker from the DuPont company recalls the work once done on this ground.
Larry Gilbert Dahl
Clackamas County, OR
This stretch of Oregon highway carries the name of Larry Gilbert Dahl, a U.S. Army soldier honored for his sacrifice. Dahl was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his gallantry during the Vietnam War in 1971, when he shielded fellow soldiers from an enemy grenade with his own body.