My parents live in this town and the city legally can’t tear the tree down to build or anything because the tree has its own legal rights and they can’t do anything about it.

I love this story because this guy in the early 1800’s had so many great childhood memories of this tree and wanted to make sure it was protected no matter what. So he deeded the ownership of the tree to itself and everyone just went with it.
Then in 1942 this intense windstorm came and knocked the tree over. And people were bummed. But someone had saved an acorn from the original tree, so they planted that and now Son of the Tree That Owns Itself is over 50 feet tall.
And since this new tree is technically the offspring of the original tree it’s considered to have legally inherited the plot of land it’s inhabiting.

The best part is that lots of people know that it shouldn’t be legally possible for a tree to own land, but because its harmless the local government made an exception and acknowledges that the tree does in fact legally own itself and therefore they cant touch it.

Two generations of trees owning land is amazing and if you don’t think this is the coolest thing get right out of my face.