Hastings College and the community of Hastings have partnered together since 1883 to transform the area that is Hastings College Arboretum from a treeless plain into a beautiful and educational garden. This week, in honor of Earth Day (April 22), Arbor Day (April 24) and 126 years since the first tree was planted, Hastings College will host a dedication to this successful and continuing partnership.

Between 4-5 p.m., Thursday, April 23 volunteers, including girl scouts, boy scouts and Hastings College students, will plant trees and spread wood chips in the Circle Drive area of Hastings College. This is where the Arboretum’s first trees were planted in April 1883, 126 years ago, in connection with the groundbreaking for the first permanent building at Hastings College, McCormick Hall. This area is also home to several of the Arboretum’s “signature” trees.

During this time on Thursday, the new Hastings College Arboretum sign will be unveiled near the entrance to Circle Drive by the Hurley-McDonald Administration Building. The design for the sign came from a collaboration between the Hastings College communications department and Beyke signs.
Visit the Arboretum website at www.hastings.edu/arboretum to view the history of the arboretum in text and historical photos and see photos of the trees with their names, campus locations and locations from Google Earth. The Arboretum website also provides information on how you can give a tribute tree or schedule a guided tour.

The Hastings Campus Arboretum, once a treeless pasture, now nurtures nearly 1000 trees. Its location in the heart of the Great Plains near the 40th parallel and 98th meridian, one tough place for trees, is testimony to the tradition of tree planting and care nurtured by countless dedicated professionals and volunteers from 1883 to the present. The Hastings College Arboretum became part of the official Nebraska Statewide Arboretum in 1997.