This willow tree grew from a sprig taken from a tree on the grounds of the birthplace of Jeanne D'Arc in Domremy, Haute-Marne, France. In May 1919, the University of Wisconsin sent sprigs of this willow to a number of American Legion posts, and this one was planted in Mellen in 1924. When the sprigs were sent to Wisconsin, they were accompanied by a letter from American General John "Black Jack" Pershing expressing the hope that for Wisconsin schoolchildren these trees would typify, by their strength and stature, the life, force, and ideals of their fathers, the American soldiers who crossed the ocean and gained victory so that their children might be free. Five centuries earlier, under these willows, the Maid of Orleans heard the divine voices that sent her on her mission.