History Branches Out With Plan for Conejo Trees : Landmarks: Effort seeks to publicize the most magnificent specimens, such as Newbury Park’s 300-year-old sycamore.

For a tree, the Hunt olive has a pretty bad rap.

Some local history buffs believe the 200-year-old tree at Lynn Road and Hillcrest Drive once served as a gallows, with a hangman’s noose dangling from its broad boughs. Others believe it marks the spot where a mythical Mr. Hunt took a fatal tumble off his horse as he galloped across the Conejo Valley.

Whatever the truth, Bryan Badgett thinks people should know that the Hunt olive has a history much, much older than the city of Thousand Oaks.

Picking up a concept that former city Arts Commissioner Cate Brown proposed several years ago, Badgett is launching a program called Designation of Patriarch Trees. The goal is to identify, map and publicize the Conejo Valley’s most magnificent trees.

“Thousand Oaks has been one of the leaders in protecting oak trees, but I want to take it one step further,” said Badgett, a landscape architect and city arts commissioner. “There are a lot of other beautiful trees here worthy of protection.”

For instance, there’s the 300-year-old sycamore on the grounds of Newbury Park’s Stagecoach Inn.

Designated a historical landmark, the tree is famous for one knobby branch that points directly to a brook. Legend has it that when Native Americans stumbled across the stream centuries ago, they bent the tree’s bough into a right angle to signal the presence of water.

Just a few miles from the Stagecoach Inn, another group of sycamores has earned its place in local lore.

To preserve the sycamores, which line Hillcrest Drive between Lynn and Ventu Park roads, the Thousand Oaks City Council had to approve an expensive engineering trick.

Instead of paving over the sycamores’ extensive roots--which might have killed the centuries-old trees--the city’s Public Works Department agreed to build Hillcrest Drive about 30 feet above ground level.

Elevating the road left the trees unscathed. And the engineering feat has held up over time--the sycamores are thriving, drawing nutrients from an aquifer three stories below the pavement.

The Hunt olive tree wasn’t so lucky. Circuit City’s builder could not construct the electronics store around the huge tree, so crews excavated its massive bulk and moved it to the corner of the property. The transplanting, conducted with city approval, was a success and the olive tree is now flourishing.

Other trees have also earned special treatment from Thousand Oaks’ Public Works Department. Hodencamp Road swerves suddenly between Hillcrest Drive and Thousand Oaks Boulevard, for instance, simply to save a stately oak tree that now stands in the median.

“We have some truly significant trees here,” Councilwoman Judy Lazar said.

Badgett and Brown agree wholeheartedly. And they want to spread the word.

“All too often our eyes stay at eye level when we’re walking,” Brown said. “We never look at the trees overhead. This program would help people be aware of some of the beautiful trees we have here.”

Although she named the program Designation of Patriarch Trees, Brown said she won’t insist that the trees be identified as father figures.

“Patriarch, matriarch, call them whatever you want,” she said. “Just save them.”

Once they have identified the most important specimens, Brown and Badgett hope to put up plaques describing each tree’s history. They would also like to print a brochure outlining walking tours of Thousand Oaks’ best-looking trees.

“School kids can learn that there is age, there is history to this city,” Badgett said. “A lot of kids think trees are always here. We can tell them, ‘Hey, these trees have historical value, so let’s keep them around.’ ”

The Designation of Patriarch Trees project would supplement efforts by the Ventura County Cultural Heritage Board, which is responsible for identifying the region’s most historically significant trees.

In the past three decades, the board has designated only 10 trees as historical landmarks, including the Hunt olive, the Stagecoach Inn sycamore and, most recently, the C Street palms in Oxnard.

“Trees have to have some age and historical significance for us to recognize them,” said Madeline Miedema, chairwoman of the Cultural Heritage Board. “It seems to me that the (Thousand Oaks) program is a worthy project because it could help preserve more of the beautiful trees.”