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The Shawshank Redemption

Iconic oak in 'Shawshank Redemption' falls in wind gust

Lou Whitmire
(Mansfield, Ohio) News Journal
The iconic oak in the movie "The Shawshank Redemption" fell over July 22, 2016. On July 29, 2011, half of the tree was damaged in another windstorm.

LUCAS, Ohio — What was left of the famous oak tree from The Shawshank Redemption fell Friday, apparently the victim of a southwest wind.

John and Marge Shoemaker of Weatherford, Texas, in this area about 80 miles southwest of Cleveland for their niece's Saturday wedding, may have been among the last to see the tree still standing. They photographed the tree Thursday and learned from a tour guide Friday at Malabar Farm State Park that the tree just fell.

The oak of undetermined age, on private property near the state park, has been one of the most popular tourist sites tied to the movie, which filmed in and around nearby Mansfield, Ohio, in summer 1993. The old Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield stood in for the fictional Shawshank State Penitentiary in Maine as the setting for the movie, based on a 1982 Stephen King short story and nominated for seven 1994 Academy Awards.

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In the movie, Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) tells fellow inmate Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding (Morgan Freeman) that he buried a box under the tree beside a stone wall before he was incarcerated, and he wants Red to have whenever is inside when Red is paroled.

Andy leaves prison first. But when Red gets out, he finds the stone wall and tree just as Andy had described it, a key piece of the plot.

Part of the tree was damaged July 29, 2011, during a storm, and the Malabar Farm park manager, Louis Andres, said then that the old oak had rotted in the middle. The downed portion was cleaned up and the remainder of the tree, a bit worn by its hard life, continued to leaf out and attract fans.

Staff at the Mansfield/Richland County Convention & Visitors Bureau, which created The Shawshank Trail driving tour to highlight sites from the movie, said they received a call Friday afternoon informing them that the trunk had split again and the entire tree was down.

Follow Lou Whitmire on Twitter: @LWhitmir

Bob of TheBobBlog took this photo of the Shawshank oak on Sept. 10, 2006.

You can find the famous oak tree at the 1:52-minute mark in the trailer.

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