The Halfway Tree is located on the south side of Canada’s number one highway – about an eight minute drive east of MacGregor – about midway between Winnipeg and Brandon.
Carl Epp, owner of Parkland Tree Care, said he was recently contacted by residents who live near the tree and asked to assess its condition.
“It’s about 100 years old and declining,” Epp told CTV News.
He said the tree — an eastern cottonwood poplar — is about 85 feet tall and has two main trunks.
“One of those main trunks died a long time ago, and it’s still sitting there in the tree, it hasn’t been removed, it hasn’t fallen,” he said.  “The other half of the tree is doing very well. It has very good healthy foliage.”

The Halfway Tree is located on the south side of Canada’s number one highway – about an eight minute drive east of MacGregor – about midway between Winnipeg and Brandon. (Source: Danton Unger/CTV News Winnipeg) Epp said the tree is credited with being planted around 1919 by a local farmer as a memorial to his wife and baby who died in childbirth. He said given the type of tree and the fact that it’s been growing for more than a century, it’s doing well. “That’s pretty advanced for a cottonwood tree — there aren’t many that get that old,” he said. “An oak—they put a lot of energy into protecting against rot and rot and so forth, and insects and disease. But poplars don’t do that. They put more effort into growing.” Epp said on the healthy side of the tree, the leaves show no signs of insects or rot. However, there are some overgrown branches that need to be pruned. He said the dead trunk would probably have to be removed as well. “This will hopefully reduce the risk this tree poses to people visiting it and to the highway.” A provincial spokesperson told CTV News that Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure has reviewed the tree’s assessment and will arrange for the tree to be cut down at the appropriate time of year. They said there are actually two “Halfway Trees”. A willow tree planted about nine kilometers east of the cottonwood tree on the north side of Highway 1 is, according to the province, a designated heritage tree. The cottonwood tree is not actually the provincially designated ‘Halfway Tree’. “Although this is not listed as a heritage tree, it is much loved and recognized by many as the ‘Halfway Tree,’” the spokesman said in an email. The tree is indeed beloved by Manitobans. It has a Facebook fan group with more than 1,900 members. It has inspired artists, photographers and musicians – one of whom wrote a song about the iconic marker. Epp said during his assessment he found stingers perched on the tree’s branches or nestled in its bark – evidence of its impact on people’s lives. “There was a geocache there. Someone left some full beer bottles … there was some kind of alcohol,” he said. “Someone stuck an old-fashioned lighter in a crack in the bark. There were some interesting little things left there with the tree.” When the iconic midway trees eventually die, a county spokesperson told CTV News they can’t be replaced. “We hope that those concerned about the health of these large trees understand that it is not possible to plant new trees in close proximity to the motorway as they could pose a safety hazard to the traveling public,” the spokesman said in a e-mail. . The Halfway Tree is located on the south side of Canada’s number one highway – about an eight minute drive east of MacGregor – about midway between Winnipeg and Brandon. (Source: Danton Unger/CTV News Winnipeg) As for how old the tree is, Epp says it’s hard to say. “You can’t put a time frame on how long this tree is – it could live for many years, (or) something catastrophic could happen tomorrow to it,” he said. “He could live a long time. It needs to be monitored often, like it needs to be monitored probably once a year, just because of the condition of the tree and its location, to make sure something hasn’t grown in the meantime.” He said even with proper pruning and regular monitoring, no tree is risk-free. “Any tree, given enough wind and enough precipitation — whether it’s freezing rain or wet snow or wet soils — will fail,” he said. “We’re trying to mitigate those risks to make sure he can live as long as possible without something catastrophic happening to him.”