by Mary Reid Barrow

“Mini” a gigantic live oak in Kempsville, is always the exclamation point at the of LRNow’s Central Virginia Beach Notable Tree Tour.

Mini is one of the top five largest live oaks in Virginia and one of Brent James’ favorite trees. Brent is LRNow’s Notable Tree Manager and tree tour leader.

Mini is such a beautiful tree that he shows her off last to end the tour with a bang.

Mini again will be the exclamation point on an upcoming Central Virginia Beach Notable Tree Tour from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26. The van will leave from the Kempsville Recreation Center.

“She was ironically named “Mini” by Charlene Hood who lived with the big tree on her property for over 30 years,” Brent said. “Mrs. Hood passed away in her 90s a few years ago.”

And Mini lives on. She is about 450 years old now, probably a little sapling when the first settlers arrived at Cape Henry in 1607.

Mini grew up on the grounds of what was once the Fairfield Plantation, established by Thomas Walke who immigrated here from the West Indies in the 1650s, Brent said. Walke married Mary Lawson, who was the daughter of Lt. Col. Anthony Lawson and Anne Keeling.

So, Mini has seen names such as Lawson Hall and Fairfield plantations and Keeling Drain evolve into modern day locations telling the story of Virginia Beach history and growth.

“I saw a photo of the old Fairfield Plantation detached kitchen building from post-Civil War time,” Brent said, “and Mini was in the picture and was enormous even 160 years ago.”

Mini is not like the live oaks that we are used to see along the coast, he explained. Coastal oaks grow lower to the round with multiple trunks.

“Mini is away from the coast in Kempsville and has a single very large trunk, an upright stance and is quite tall,” Brent said.

To visit with Mini and other Notable Trees in Central Virginia Beach, find out more here.