Huge Zebulon oak tree, 400 years old, topples without warning

But on a warm, calm Monday – Memorial Day – the tree came crashing down. Twenty-one feet around, 110 feet tall, the great oak meant a lot to Dave and Donna Little, who own the property in Zebulon where the tree stood for 400 years.

"I went to church yesterday and stood up and gave testimony about the tree and how much I loved it," said Donna Little. "It just grieves me that it's gone."

Donna Little was underneath the tree Saturday afternoon, spraying for weeds, when her husband and son heard a loud noise.

"I said, 'What's that noise?' And he said, 'Oh my gosh, something is going on with that tree, Mom,'" she said. "'Get out from underneath that tree.'"

"We heard this popping noise and he started yelling and so, we came around the house, running around the house and saw this tree coming down," Dave Little said. "It was so loud. It was like a bomb."

Donna Little said she felt the ground shaking as her dream of making the tree a destination for wedding ceremonies came tumbling to the ground.

Still, the toppled "tree of life," as she calls it, could make someone else's dreams come true.

"For those people who are, maybe, carpenters or furniture builders, this is definitely an opportunity for those people," Donna Little said.

Cleanup of the tree is expected to cost thousands, but the Littles say they're relieved no one was hurt.