Bonaventure has long been known for the massive live oak trees with arched limbs covered in Spanish moss overhanging her roadways. Historical documentation has proved that many of the live oak trees in Bonaventure today are nearly 250 years old. When Colonel John Mullryne selected this site for his family’s residence in 1764, he directed the establishment of live oak trees every fifteen feet along both sides of the main corridors of the estate. These trees were well established before the American Revolution.

Live oak has a naturally spiraling wood grain that allows the tough wood to bend rather than break, making the tree the most hurricane-resistant tree in North America. The most ferocious storm ever to strike Savannah was the Hurricane of 1804 at the beginning of a century and the second worst was the Great Sea Islands Hurricane at the end of the same century (1893). Other major hurricanes struck in 1824, 1854 and 1884, with intermittent hurricanes of less force and tropical storms too numerous to mention. These were the glory days of the hurricane-resistant live oaks at Bonaventure which survived, and even thrived during repeated poundings by gale force winds.

The trees have been slowly declining since the Great Sea Islands Hurricane of 1893; however, there are two and a half centuries of surveys, photographs, reports, and folklore that have documented their life story. In 2004, the live oaks of Bonaventure Cemetery were registered on the Georgia Landmark and Historic Tree Register.