Deep Roots

To live in Orange is to be surrounded by history. Our living story is all around us. It's in our buildings to be preserved and cherished, it's in our families who pass it down from parents to their children, and it's in our parks and trees to be shared through the generations.
City of Orange Police Chief Dan Adams also shares deep roots with our City. An Orange native, and 32 year veteran of the Orange Police Department, his family has been a part of our community for generations. In 1974, five-year-old Dan helped his father and grandfather plant a Saucer Magnolia tree Plaza Park in memory of Adams’ great-grandmother, Marah Adams. Marah was a reporter for the newspaper that would eventually become the Orange County Register, and wrote for them from the 1920’s until her retirement in 1964.
For nearly half a century, the Adams Magnolia was a beloved feature of the park, providing shade in the summer and flowers in the spring. Unfortunately, in May of this year, a vehicle lost control, plowed into Plaza Park, and destroyed the Adams family tree.
Sometimes, though, tragedies can present an opportunity for new beginnings to take root. On July 7, 2022, Chief Adams, his father, John, his two sons, Joe and Jake, his cousin Chuck Walstead, and Chuck’s son Levi, placed a sapling Eastern Redbud tree in the spot where the Magnolia once stood. Witnessed by family members, friends, Orange Police officers, and Orange Mayor Mark A. Murphy, the tree was planted in the spot where new generations will someday take shade under its branches.