April 25, 2026, 5:02 a.m. CT
An American elm tree that was nearly cut down after the Oklahoma City bombing has become a symbol for resilience in the 31 years since the tragedy.
The Survivor Tree has taken on a special significance at the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum, and its image has become iconic for remembrances that continue to this day. While it was a simple shade tree in the parking lot of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building before the bombing, it’s now lovingly cared for and its health closely monitored.
As a living tree, it’s also borne saplings and seeds that are planted all across the nation. Occasionally, the gift of a sapling carries significant importance, linking the recipient with one of the nation’s most inspiring stories of survival.
Members of the public can also plant their own Survivor Tree sapling or a seed kit purchased through the museum.
Here are some notable people and places that have received a sapling from the Survivor Tree.
OKC mayor gifts sapling to President Bush
In 2026 on the 31st anniversary of the OKC bombing, Mayor David Holt gave a sapling of the Survivor Tree to former President George W. Bush.
In a Facebook post, Holt recalled how Bush, then governor of Texas, and former First Lady Laura Bush visited Oklahoma City for a memorial service in the days after the bombing.
The couple returned to Oklahoma a month into Bush’s presidency for a dedication of the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum.
“Today, it was wonderful to spend some time with the president and present him with a Survivor Tree seedling as gratitude for his family’s support of our city through the years,” Holt wrote on April 17.
It will be planted on the grounds of the George W. Bush Presidential Center. Specifically, a spokesman for the center said it will be planted in the Laura W. Bush Native Texas Park, a 15-acre park that’s planted with trees and flowers native to the region.
Saplings planted in major OKC, Tulsa parks
The Survivor Tree will live on with plantings at major parks in Oklahoma’s biggest cities.
In 2019, a sapling grown from Survivor Tree seeds was planted at Scissortail Park in Oklahoma City.
That same year, officials from Oklahoma City visited their counterparts in Tulsa to donate a sapling for the then-new Gathering Place, a sprawling park and recreation area in the city.
Tulsa’s Survivor Tree sapling is located on the North Landbridge Lawn between ONEOK Boathouse and the River Park Trail.
Survivor Trees link New York City, OKC through shared tragedies
In 2006, the 9/11 Survivors Network invited OKC bombing survivors to attend an installation of an OKC Survivor Tree sapling in the Living Grove Memorial Park at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, in memory of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The 9/11 Memorial and Museum has its own survivor tree, a Callery pear tree that was discovered at Ground Zero. A sapling from that tree was sent to Oklahoma, where it was planted alongside a sapling from the Oklahoma tree on the campus of Oklahoma Christian University.
Seedling sits outside the home of 19th-century president
In 2016, a group of people gathered in Fremont, Ohio, at Spiegel Grove, the grounds of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museums for a peace ceremony.
Officials planted a Survivor Tree sapling as elementary school students sang “Let There be Peace on Earth” and sprinkled rose petals around the tree. Spiegel Grove is the 25-acre wooded estate of President Hayes and First Lady Lucy Hayes. The Survivor Tree seedling was planted on the front lawn of the couple’s home.
Hayes served as president from 1877 to 1881.
Sapling on U.S. Capitol grounds ‘thriving’
Last year during the 30th anniversary of the bombing, a Survivor Tree descendant was planted at the U.S. Capitol.
“Only a few months later, the tree is already thriving,” the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum posted in September. “Like the Survivor Tree in Oklahoma City, it stands as a living symbol of strength, and honors those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever.”
Sapling sent to Dallas Holocaust Museum
As officials prepared to break ground on the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, they requested a sapling from the Survivor Tree.
In 2017, President and CEO of the Holocaust Museum, Mary Pat Higgins, said the museum included an exhibit featuring events that happened on April 19, 1943, which provided a connection to Oklahoma’s own tragedy that occurred on April 19, 1995.
“We thought it would be fitting to remember those who perished in the Oklahoma City tragedy as we remember those murdered by the Nazis during World War II,” Higgins told The Oklahoman.
