Trivia 4-26-17 Gettysburg Tree

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Camp Colt was memorialized by planting a pine tree with soil from all 48 states.

http://www.gettysburgdaily.com/a-correction-and-camp-colt/
 

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It was planted by the soldiers of Camp Colt (a military installation near Gettysburg, used for Tank Corps training during World War 1). They were honoring their Captain, Dwight D. Eisenhower. What makes it unusual - they used soil from the 48 states that at the time were in the Union. It is located at Emmitsburg Road just west of the Angle. (Picketts Charge)
http://gettysburg-acw.blogspot.com/2007/02/obscure-question-or-two.html
 
My source http://www.gettysburgdaily.com/error-camp-colt-marker/

Edit - Welcome to CivilWarTalk and to the trivia game, MOBDEnut.

Since this is your first time playing, I will accept your answer. However, please keep in mind for future reference - the rules state that players may submit a link in support of their answer, but the link should not BE their answer. Answers should be stated in the player's own words.

Hope you'll come back and play again.

Hoosier
 
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Camp Colt was established to train soldiers to operate tanks during World War I. Established in 1917, Captain Dwight D. Eisenhower arrived in the spring of 1918 to take command. As you can see, Eisehower and his men weren’t too concerned about battlefield preservation.The tank is cresting over the bank of the Bliss Barn. The monument to the 12th New Jersey Infantry is the white monument to the right of the tank, and closer to the right foreground is the monument to the 14th Connecticut Infantry. This view was taken facing north circa the summer of 1918.

The planting of the pine tree had dirt from all 48 states.
 
The "Eisenhower Memorial Pine Tree" was planted to commemorate the 1917 establishment of Camp Colt, a tank training facility that was commanded by future president Dwight Eisenhower. What was "unusual" about its planting? Being a subjective word in this instance, "unusual" could be that a WWI tank training facility whose purpose was to train men to kill others in another war, was on another war's battlefield and partially located on the portion of that battlefield where Pickett's Charge took place and men had died more than 50 years previous. Or "unusual" that the soil from 47 different states was used in the planting of the tree.
 
A Pine tree was planted on the Gettysburg Battlefield commemorating something that started happening in 1917.

What was the Pine Tree commemorating and what makes its planting so unusual?

credit: @Wallyfish
I'm going to gues it has something to do with WWI and/or Camp Colt.

Edit - That is a correct guess for the first part of the question, but you didn't answer the part about what made the planting so unusual.

Hoosier
 
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Just the way I like them...way too easy :D

The pine tree was dedicated in 1954 to Camp Colt U.S. Army Tank Training Center (the first of it's kind in the U.S.) at Gettysburg and Captain Dwight D. Eisenhower as it's first CO. What makes it's planting so unusual is that soil (50 lbs.) was used from all 48 states (at that time) plus Alaska and Hawaii (still territories) to plant it.

http://www.gettysburgdaily.com/a-correction-and-camp-colt/
 
The Memorial Pine Tree was planted to commemorate Camp Colt, a camp for Tank Corps recruit training in World War I, established 1917 and opened in 1918. Its commander was Dwight Eisenhower, and the camp was on the fields made famous by Pickett's Charge. Per wikipedia article, "Camp Colt, Pennsylvania": "Eisenhower was honored[10] during the 1954 World Wars Tank Corps Association reunion when they planted a 22-foot "Memorial Pine Tree" with a tablet at
17px-WMA_button2b.png
39°48.893′N 77°14.253′W.[11] Dirt from various states was used,[48] including Connecticut soil from Samuel Colt's "Colt Park" estate[GT 6]" Note that Eisenhower was President at the time of the planting.

Additional sources confirming the above:
https://www.nps.gov/articles/the-armys-first-tank-school-camp-colt-at-gettysburg.htm
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/witness-trees-at-gettysburg.12220/page-4
 
It was commemorating "the birthplace of the American Armored Forces". Fifty pounds of earth taken from the 48 states, Hawaii and Alaska will be scattered around the roots of the tankers "Memorial Pine Tree", earth steeped in the blood of American soldiers from the Revolution through the great wars of our republic. From South Carolina comes soil from the Kings Mountain Battlefield, where the British were defeated by American troops on Oct. 7, 1780.
Texas sends soil from the Alamo, where Davy Crockett, Col. James Bowie, and a handful of Americans were slaughtered by Santa Anna in 1835, and from San Jacinto where on April 21, 1836. the Texans won their independence from Mexico. Louisiana -soil was dug from Chalmette Battlefield where Andrew Jackson won the Battle of New Orleans by whipping the British forces, January 8, 1815, after the treaty at Ghent had already been signed. The North Dakota earth is that trod by General George A. Custer at Fort Lincoln as he set out with his 7th cavalry in 1876 to face massacre at the hands of Sitting Bull. From Patton's Home From Massachusetts has come earth from the home of General George S. Patton, one of the world's great tank commanders; from Vermont, ground from Calvin Coolidge's homestead. Colorado is represented by "land from the home of Mrs. John S. Doud, mother of Mrs. D. D. Eisenhower. Nome's Golden Beach, black and ruby sand flecked with gold, Ft. Knox, Ky., with earth scopped up in a mint julep cup. Florida, with soil from a historic cannon outside the Jacksonville city hall, are other sites whose earth will form a portion of the new memorial.
source-https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/45978809/

Edit - Your source supports your answer that the marker commemorates the birthplace of the American Armored Forces, so this is a correct answer.

Hoosier
 
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