The ruins of Tracy Elementary School and the splintered Tracy Tornado Tree revealed the destructive power of the June 13, 1968 tornado, while the tree endured as a symbol of Tracy's indomitable spirit in rebuilding. A large elm at the corner of Fifth and Rowland streets, it had shaded generations of students before the storm caught it squarely in its path, grotesquely stripping its trunk of bark and branches and twisting and splintering its limbs, yet leaving it rooted beside the wrecked school. Known thereafter as the Tracy Tornado Tree, it was spared during the massive clean-up, moved in 1969 to a Hwy. 14 park location, and in 1990 was replaced by a steel-sculpture replica sponsored by the Tracy Area Chamber of Commerce, designed and built by Steve Jaenisch of Fergus Falls, and funded by a McNight Foundation grant and private donations. In 2013, a polished granite memorial replaced a small brick marker as a tribute to the nine people who lost their lives in the Tracy Tornado. Time also seemed to stand still in Tracy at 7:03 p.m. on June 13, 1968, when the tornado began blasting through the city from the southwest and knocked out electrical power. A clock recovered from Tracy Elementary School wreckage had stopped shortly after 7 p.m., and National Weather Service records calculate that the tornado struck the school at 3 minutes and 42 seconds past seven o'clock; the 7:04 p.m. time, when the tornado was ravaging the heart of Tracy, is reflected in the clock symbol on the granite memorial erected in 2013.