FALL 2021

Westmont Magazine Rooted and Grounded in Love

Ephesians 3:17

The towering redwood tree on Kerrwood Lawn, nicknamed the Pickle Tree, took root before Westmont’s founding, providing shade for generations of students. After removing the dying tree, the college used its wood to make benches and Christmas ornaments.

Photos courtesy of the Westmont College Archives

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In the late 1940s, dozens of redwoods, oaks and Atlas cedars surrounded Kerrwood Circle.
The tree was one of five redwoods on Kerrwood Lawn.
Students soak up the sun while socializing and studying on the lawn in the mid-1950s.
Students gather for chapel under the giant redwood in the mid-1960s.
By the late 1970s, the college had planted a rose garden, later named for Refugio “Dotty” Juarez.
Students gather on Kerrwood Lawn during the annual Community Picnic in 2015.
Beginning in 2002, hundreds of alumni gathered under the tree to kick off the Christmas season.
Miguel Moreno ’22 receives his reward, a giant jar of pickles, after winning a pickle-eating contest in 2018.
In June 2021, crews carefully removed the redwood in six-foot sections, storing several of them on campus.
Benches made from the tree’s wood line Kerrwood Circle.
Commemorative ornaments have been made from the Pickle Tree.
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