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STORY BOARDS

is a multi-part installation of nine live-edge wood slabs cut from nine different species of trees that visitors can find growing on the Arboretum grounds.
EVERY TREE HAS A STORY
each knot, growth ring, and worm hole
can be read with imagination and science, like we view constellations, galaxies, or the Morse Code. This wood represents time, memory, carbon, water, and light.

In addition to that story, we are using the surfaces of these wood slates to draw visual “pictographs” that tell the stories of this land and the arboretum. This is the first phase of the installation.

We invite you to send your tree stories to prairiearboretum@gmail.com Through-out the next year, these new stories will be developed into images and wood burned into the blank slabs hanging here.
THIS INSTALLATION IS CONCEIVED AND CREATED BY BRYAN SANER AND TERESA PANKRATZ
EVERY TREE HAS A STORY
each knot, growth ring, and worm hole
can be read with imagination and science, like we view constellations, galaxies, or the Morse Code. This wood represents time, memory, carbon, water, and light.

In addition to that story, we are using the surfaces of these wood slates to draw visual “pictographs” that tell the stories of this land and the arboretum. This is the first phase of the installation.

We invite you to send your tree stories to prairiearboretum@gmail.com Through-out the next year, these new stories will be developed into images and wood burned into the blank slabs hanging here.

THIS INSTALLATION IS CONCEIVED AND CREATED BY BRYAN SANER AND TERESA PANKRATZ

Cottonwood

Found in center of section between 446th and 447 ave, north of 280th street.

Breath of life

Through photosythesis, tree leaves absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen.  Humans and animals breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide.  The relationship between trees and humans is basic and essential.
The shape of the human lung’s Larynx, Trachea, Carina, Bronchi, Bronchioles, and Alveoli, roughly correspond to the shape of Tree Roots, Trunk, Branches, and Leaves.
The following book by the educator and author Pete Leki explains how this works and illustrates the relationship between humans and trees.
Explore the Story
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Silver Maple

This Maple board was milled on DeLane and Rita Graber’s Farm. It watched the South Church being built, burned, and re-built.

The Mosasaur

The Mosasaur represents the Western Interior Seaway, a warm, shallow sea that split North America during the Late Cretaceous period. About 65 million years ago, southeastern South Dakota was part of the shoreline of this ancient sea.
The Arboretum stands as an oasis within this ongoing evolution, reminding us of our place in the long story of the Earth.
This story invites us to consider the deep history of the land beneath the Arboretum. Long before prairie grasses, trees, agriculture, and human settlement, this region was shaped by water, geology, and time.
Explore the Story
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Mulberry

This mulberry was taken from 446th Ave Near 280th St.

Endurance

Endurance is the story of an ancient stone hammer shaped first by glacial water, then by human hands. After resting for thousands of years in the prairie, the stone was found and carefully made into a tool meant not for war, but for peace, sustenance, and life.
For generations, Endurance helped break bones for marrow, pound tent stakes, and serve the daily needs of families. Later, after being lost, buried, plowed up, and forgotten, the stone found its way to the Arboretum.
This story reminds us that objects, like land, carry memory. Endurance asks to be useful again—not as a tool of survival, but as an inspiration for people to touch, lift, remember, and carry forward.
Explore the Story
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Silver Poplar

The Silver Poplar is from the Arlan Ortman Farm at 44578 280th St.

Story Coming Soon

The board that’s on display was cut from a limb that broke off of the main tree during a wind storm. The limb crushed the roof of the garage. The main tree is still standing.
The Arboretum stands as an oasis within this ongoing evolution, reminding us of our place in the long story of the Earth.
This story invites us to consider the deep history of the land beneath the Arboretum. Long before prairie grasses, trees, agriculture, and human settlement, this region was shaped by water, geology, and time.
Explore the Story
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PRAIRIE ARBORETUM VISITOR CENTER

Walnut

The Walnut is from Poplar St in Freeman

Story Coming Soon

The board that’s on display was cut from a limb that broke off of the main tree during a wind storm. The limb crushed the roof of the garage. The main tree is still standing.
The Arboretum stands as an oasis within this ongoing evolution, reminding us of our place in the long story of the Earth.
This story invites us to consider the deep history of the land beneath the Arboretum. Long before prairie grasses, trees, agriculture, and human settlement, this region was shaped by water, geology, and time.
Explore the Story
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PRAIRIE ARBORETUM VISITOR CENTER

Bur Oak

The Bur Oak is from along the Turkey Ridge Creek from the virgin gulch just east of 443rd Ave between near 284th st on the land that is currently stewarded by Monte Waltner.

Story Coming Soon

The board that’s on display was cut from a limb that broke off of the main tree during a wind storm. The limb crushed the roof of the garage. The main tree is still standing.
The Arboretum stands as an oasis within this ongoing evolution, reminding us of our place in the long story of the Earth.
This story invites us to consider the deep history of the land beneath the Arboretum. Long before prairie grasses, trees, agriculture, and human settlement, this region was shaped by water, geology, and time.
Explore the Story
Prairie Arboretem Logo (transparent)
PRAIRIE ARBORETUM VISITOR CENTER

Scotch Pine

The scotch pine is from Lee Brockmueller’s farm on 442nd Ave

Story Coming Soon

The board that’s on display was cut from a limb that broke off of the main tree during a wind storm. The limb crushed the roof of the garage. The main tree is still standing.
The Arboretum stands as an oasis within this ongoing evolution, reminding us of our place in the long story of the Earth.
This story invites us to consider the deep history of the land beneath the Arboretum. Long before prairie grasses, trees, agriculture, and human settlement, this region was shaped by water, geology, and time.
Explore the Story
Prairie Arboretem Logo (transparent)
PRAIRIE ARBORETUM VISITOR CENTER

American Elm

The Elm is from 28187 446 Ave

Story Coming Soon

The board that’s on display was cut from a limb that broke off of the main tree during a wind storm. The limb crushed the roof of the garage. The main tree is still standing.
The Arboretum stands as an oasis within this ongoing evolution, reminding us of our place in the long story of the Earth.
This story invites us to consider the deep history of the land beneath the Arboretum. Long before prairie grasses, trees, agriculture, and human settlement, this region was shaped by water, geology, and time.
Explore the Story
Prairie Arboretem Logo (transparent)
PRAIRIE ARBORETUM VISITOR CENTER

Willow

The Willow is from 54574 280th st.

Story Coming Soon

The board that’s on display was cut from a limb that broke off of the main tree during a wind storm. The limb crushed the roof of the garage. The main tree is still standing.
The Arboretum stands as an oasis within this ongoing evolution, reminding us of our place in the long story of the Earth.
This story invites us to consider the deep history of the land beneath the Arboretum. Long before prairie grasses, trees, agriculture, and human settlement, this region was shaped by water, geology, and time.
Explore the Story
Prairie Arboretem Logo (transparent)
PRAIRIE ARBORETUM VISITOR CENTER