1. Julie Kehl
Comm. 2321
Tight Deadline 4
March 5, 2015
Story 1
A historic 100 year old tree is to be honored today.
The tree, which stands in the middle of Trafford Universities’ campus, has seen its share of
drama throughout the years. Marcus Maxwell, a professor of history and university historian,
said the “first troop of soldiers that gathered at the university to fight in World War 1 assembled
under that tree right before they left by train to report to their army base.” It was also where
soldiers assembled before World War 2 as well.
Elmer Hinton was among the soldiers who started World War 1 at the tree. He said
“It was hot as blazes that day, even though it was April. Lots of people thought this war was
going to be a lark and that all we had to do was show up and the Germans would fade away. It
turned out not to be like that at all.”
For all the drama that the tree has seen it certainly hasn’t affected its health. Flora Handle, a
professor in the biology department said “it is in remarkably good shape for a tree of its age.
Usually a tree that old will have too many limbs and not enough foliage to support the whole
system. That’s not the case with this one; it should live another 50 or 75 years.”
Story 2
Will Henderson was an experienced hiker, yet he had made one huge mistake.

2. While hiking along the Appalachian Trail in Tennessee, Henderson got off the trail and while
crossing a stream, slipped and broke his leg.
Henderson is an experienced hiker, but that couldn’t stop him from getting lost.
“The mountain foliage was like a jungle. There had been a lot of rain up there this year and it
was really thick. I knew that I had better get somewhere where people could find me.”
After falling, Henderson used sticks and string to make a splint for his leg, then began crawling
for 4 days trying to get back to the trail. After pushing his 40-pound hiking pack and crawling in
thick underbrush, he finally made it back and was found by 2 hikers.
Henderson said he’ll never forget the feeling he had when the hikers found him. Even
throughout his whole ordeal, he still plans on hiking the rest of the trail, but this time he will
follow what he says is the first rule of hiking.
“I broke the first rule of hiking, of course. I hiked alone. If you’re on the Appalachian Trial, it
doesn’t matter because you’re not really alone. But when you get off the beaten track, that’s
when you need to be with somebody, and I learned my lesson about that.