Kansas shoe tree that had visitors from around the world reduced to stump after storm

It’s unclear whether it made any noise when it fell, but the famous shoe tree near Wetmore in Nemaha County, Kansas has definitely made some noise after it fell during a storm earlier this week.

People from all over the world visited the large cottonwood tree that had hundreds of shoes, heels, boots, clogs and sneakers nailed to it. It fell during a storm Thursday night. A Facebook post showing a photo of the downed tree has been shared hundreds of times, including by the Big Kansas Road Trip’s Facebook page.

One person replied to the road trip’s share that it was on their bucket list to visit the tree.

“There’s a little bit of it left but it sure isn’t the same as seeing the huge majestic tree as it once was,” the BKRT replied.

Jerry Kissel, whose father nailed the first shoe to the tree in the 1990s, said his father never thought the tree would be so popular. He said the tree knocked out the power at his fourth-generation farmstead a quarter-mile from the tree, which is on public land.

“It came down hard,” Kissel said. “We knew it was going to come down. It was a matter of time.”

The tree is believed to be more than 100 years old. Kissel said it had the circumference of a telephone pole when his great grandfather moved to the farmstead in 1909. His father would later play under its branches while he waited for the mail carrier to drop off letters at the corner.

In the 1970s, John Kissel, Jerry’s father, read about a shoe tree in the farming magazine. He started to nail his tattered shoes to the tree 20 years later.

Jerry Kissel said everyone in his family has nailed shoes to the tree, and the oldest footwear on the tree was an ice skating boot his dad used in the 1940s, according to a 2010 story in The Topeka Capital-Journal titled “Tree attracts soles.”

The tree’s popularity grew. It was part of the 2021 Big Kansas Road Trip.

A notebook was left in a nearby mailbox for visitors to sign in; a hammer and nails were also available for anyone wanting to add their shoes. Some people would also sign their shoes.

“We had people from all over ... that signed their name,” Jerry said.

The article in the Capital-Journal said there were signatures of people from South Africa and Switzerland.

Eventually, the base of the tree was covered with shoes and an electric crew in the area used a boom bucket to add shoes higher up, the article said.

John Kissel died in 2010 at the age of 84.

“Dad just liked to do unique things,” Jerry Kissel told the Capital-Journal. “Dad didn’t have any idea it would become so popular.”

When the power went out, he wondered if it was the tree’s doing. His brother, Jim, who lives on another part of the family farm, was the first to discover the shoe tree’s fate.

All that’s left of the tree now is an 8-foot stump, still loaded with shoes and three notebooks filled with signatures, Jerry Kissel said.

He said it was a good feeling when people stopped by. He often thought of his father when he drove by the tree. He doesn’t plan to start another shoe tree.

This story was originally published June 26, 2021 at 5:25 PM.