In late August I was contacted by a reporter with a query about this campus legend:
“I am a reporter with the IDS and am working on a story about the tree that the chemistry annex building was built around. I had heard stories that the tree could not be cut down because the man who donated the land to IU did so on the condition that the tree would never be cut down because he had inscribed a message to his wife in its bark.”
Is it true? I wonder if there are parallels in Simon Bronner’s book about university students’ folklore, Piled Higher and Deeper.