There were three sycamore trees in Valley Forge National Historical Park that were considered to be ‘witness trees’ growing at the time of the encampment. The biggest of these trees was the Lafayette Sycamore located on the edge of Valley Creek near to Lafayette’s Quarters.The following photos show the tree through the seasons:

The tree was multi-trunk, likely due to a original, large, single-trunk tree having been cut a number of feet above ground level. The multiple trunks then developed from root sprouts. During the Halloween storm 2012 the tree was struck by lightning and completely destroyed. The remaining ‘witness trees’ are the Maxwell and Pawling sycamores.