PORT ANGELES — The first Virginia Charter was drafted in 1606. It would govern the first English settlement in the New World, Jamestown, the next year. That same year on what would later become Eighth Street in Port Angeles, a madrona tree began growing.

Now, 400 years later, the state’s largest madrona tree, and one of its oldest, is on a site known as Ted’s Tree Park.

In memory of husband

The sign at 231 W. Eighth St. east of Cherry Street was erected Wednesday afternoon by Virginia Serr, wife of the late Ted Serr, and signmaker Jackson Smart.

Serr said her husband drove past the tree every day for 20 years traveling between their home west of the tree and his dentist’s office east of it.

“He always said it was a beautiful tree and he was worried some idiot was going to cut it down,” she said.

So she thought preserving the tree was what she could do to remember her husband, Serr said.

She bought the 7,000-square-foot commercial lot next to the McClain Crouse and Co. CPA building from Lillian Hoover for $57,000 in July 1999.

Then Port Angeles arborist James Causton inoculated the tree’s soil with a fungi intended to help the tree better absorb moisture and nutrients.

Causton had been trying to draw attention to the tree’s significance since 1990.

Largest madrona in state

In April 2001, the state Department of Natural Resources presented him with a Washington State Arbor Day Award for “his 10 years of community outreach, fundraising and preserving the largest madrona tree in Washington.”

“I wanted to make people aware of the fact that it is a very, very significant tree and it’s threatened,” Causton said.

Serr said after contacting the city about making the area into a park, she was told the city didn’t want to take on another park.

City officials did agree to route the adjacent sidewalk away from the tree to protect it, she said.

Then Jeff Bohman suggested she begin working with the North Olympic Land Trust, which uses conservation easements and other means to protect property from development.

She wants to put enough money into a trust account that the interest will pay for the tree’s maintenance, Serr said.

Many people have told her they want the tree to be saved and have backed that up with monetary donations and providing professional services at a reduced rate, she said.

Height and age

The tree was measured in 1996 at 85 feet high.

Serr said the 400-year age is an estimate.