The Balloon Farm and the Big Tree

The Farm of John G. Kinnikin, just west of Laurel, was once known as "Balloon farm."  It got the name because during the American Civil war an Union Army observation balloon landed on the farm.  The next great excitement on the farm came in 1937 when the second largest white Oak in the state of Delaware was alive on the farm and it split in half from rot in the heart of the tree, damaging the house and a couple of cars when it came down.  The tree was thought to be over 300 years old.  A large portion of the people in Western Sussex County drove onto the farm to see the tree after it fell.