Most trees can only dream of the gift given to the white oak that sits at the corner of Dearing and Finley St. in Athens, Georgia: the gift of self-ownership. That's right, this famed Tree That Owns Itself has the deed to both itself and the land within 8 ft. of its trunk. It is doubly lucky in that, unlike most property holders, it pays no taxes and is beloved by local citizens.

Legend holds that Colonel William H. Jackson, a professor at the University of Georgia, owned the land on which the tree stood and enjoyed its shade and "magnificent proportions" so much that he willed it the land around it. Although the deed has never been tested in the courts, its legitimacy seems irrelevant. Local residents not only acknowledge the tree's ownership of itself, but actually take it as an obligation to see that the oak is protected. In fact, in 1942, when the original oak (estimated to have been around 400 years old) fell in a terrible storm, the Junior Ladies' Garden Club collected acorns from the site in order to grow a successor. They were successful, and in 1946 the sapling that is today's Tree That Owns Itself was planted.