On a residential corner of Finley and Dearing Streets stands a white oak tree with a legal curiosity attached to it: it purportedly owns itself. The story goes that Colonel William H. Jackson, who loved the tree so much, deeded it ownership of itself and the land immediately surrounding it sometime in the early nineteenth century.
The original tree blew down in a storm in 1942, but the Athens community planted a successor grown from one of its acorns on the exact same spot. This second-generation tree — sometimes called "Son of the Tree That Owns Itself" — is now a well-established oak shading a small corner, with a plaque at its base explaining its unusual heritage. It's a short detour from downtown and a good example of the quirky civic pride that makes Athens an engaging place to explore.