He saw Emmen grow in recent centuries from a modest farming village into a real industrial city. And practically every Emmen resident has passed him at some point during a visit to the center. The enormous horse chestnut on the Noorderstraat in Emmen has been a silent witness to Emmer life for more than 160 years.
But many are unaware of the special story of this green giant. At the end of this month, an information column will be placed at the ‘aole boome’, as it is also called.
Anyone walking on Noorderstraat can hardly miss him. The characteristic chestnut that spreads its branches in all directions. It’s as if he’s giving the surrounding high-rise buildings and retail properties a warning: I was here first, so give me space! Not that strange in itself: the tree has probably been there the longest.
The tree was probably planted sometime between 1850 and 1860. The period when the peat development around Emmen started and the small village (around 4000 inhabitants) would soon undergo a serious growth spurt. The tree therefore marks an important point in the history of Emmen. But who planted it there? “At least not Hugo Emmen,” said amateur historian Johan Withaar.
Because that’s the classic story. Hugo (1681-1724) belonged to an influential Drenthe administrative family. Between 1625 and 1772, this family held the role of schulte van Emmen, Odoorn and Roswinkel for five successive generations.
A schulte is a kind of precursor to today’s mayor, Withaar explains. Moreover, Hugo could not have planted the tree, because he had already died more than a hundred years before the arrival of the chestnut. “But Hugo did have a good friend, Lucas Crusen. He admired Hugo, because he named all his children after him. Why did he do that? Well, Hugo was a man with a lot of prestige, money and power. I think that that was the reason.”
Withaar decided to do some research and came across an old newspaper article from 1952, which told about one of the descendants of these Crusians. In 1853, a certain Hugo Emmen Kuiper was born. He lived on Noorderstraat, in a farm where the Blokker now stands. According to his family, this is the man who planted the chestnut, Withaar said. “He saw the small chestnut along the road. It was not a good place because the plant was in danger of being trampled by passing farm carts and flocks of sheep. So he decided to transplant it to its current location.”