Welcome to Freedom Grove. Every oak you'll pass tonight carries a handmade bow, a bell, and a single word — and each word is tied to a real moment in the American story we're celebrating on her 250th birthday. Ring a bell, read a word, and take a quiet minute with what it means. Thank you for being here. — Jodie, Place Makers
This year marks America's 250th — the Semiquincentennial. Two and a half centuries since a handful of people decided that ordinary citizens could govern themselves. Each tree below pairs its word with a true piece of our history — scan a tree's code and it'll bring you right here.
Before you walk, a word about the bells. Ringing bells on the Fourth of July is one of the oldest American traditions there is — a way of letting freedom ring out loud, the way the Liberty Bell once did in Philadelphia. Every tree in Freedom Grove carries one, beside a single word from our story. As you walk, give a bell a ring for someone: a veteran, a loved one, a hope for the year ahead. Let it carry.
It all starts here. On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, and a brand-new idea went out into the world: that people are born free, and that governments answer to them. The original parchment survives to this day, docketed in period handwriting as the "Original Declaration of Independence dated 4th. July 1776." Everything else in this grove grows from that one sentence.
Source: The Declaration of Independence — National Archives.
Liberty is the freedom to live, speak, worship, and build the life you choose. We loved the idea so much we built her a statue: the Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France, was dedicated in New York Harbor on October 28, 1886, and for generations she was the first thing newcomers saw — the promise of a free start.
Source: History & Culture, Statue of Liberty — National Park Service.
Freedom isn't only the absence of chains — sometimes it's the breaking of them. On January 1, 1863, in the middle of the Civil War, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring enslaved people in the rebelling states "then, thenceforward, and forever free." It's one of the proudest, hardest-won chapters in our story.
Source: The Emancipation Proclamation — National Archives.
Declaring independence was one thing; winning it was another. It took eight years of war, and it wasn't truly secured until the Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783, when Great Britain formally recognized the United States as "free sovereign and Independent States." Freedom, then and now, is worth the long fight.
Source: Treaty of Paris (1783) — National Archives.
Courage isn't the absence of fear — it's doing the hard, right thing while you're afraid. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus, and her quiet, immense courage sparked the boycott that helped launch the modern civil rights movement. One brave "no" can change a country.
Source: Rosa Parks — National Women's History Museum.
Freedom has never been free. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, roughly 160,000 Allied troops stormed five beaches in Normandy in the largest amphibious invasion in history, beginning the liberation of Western Europe — and many never came home. We get to stand here tonight because others were willing to pay that price.
Source: D-Day: The Allies Invade Europe — The National WWII Museum.
Honor is standing for something bigger than yourself, whatever it costs. The Medal of Honor — our nation's highest decoration for valor in combat, first authorized during the Civil War in the early 1860s — is reserved for those who risked everything for the people beside them. We ring these bells in that same spirit.
Source: Medal of Honor history — U.S. Army.
Service is love with its sleeves rolled up. On March 1, 1961, President Kennedy signed the order creating the Peace Corps, sending Americans around the world in service to other nations — proof that this country measures itself not just by what it takes, but by what it gives. The volunteers who put tonight together are cut from the same cloth.
Source: Executive Order 10924, Establishment of the Peace Corps — National Archives.
Tonight is especially for our veterans. November 11 was first marked as Armistice Day in 1919 to honor the end of World War I; in 1954 it was renamed Veterans Day to honor American veterans of every war. The men and women of this community who served — and the families who served right alongside them — are the reason we gather here free and safe. Ring a bell for them. (Our friends at Emerald Isle for Veterans carry that mission all year long.)
Source: History of Veterans Day — U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
We the People — the three words that open the Constitution in 1787 and turned thirteen quarreling states into "a more perfect Union." We've never had to agree on everything to belong to each other. Tonight, under these trees, we're simply neighbors.
Source: The Constitution of the United States — National Archives.
Hope is the quiet engine of this whole country — the belief that we can do the impossible if we decide to. On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 set the first humans on the surface of the Moon, and the whole world watched a nation reach for something no one had ever touched. If we can do that, we can do almost anything.
Source: Apollo 11 — NASA.
Resilience is getting knocked down and building back. In the depths of the Great Depression, President Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933, putting hundreds of thousands of young people to work planting forests and building the parks we still enjoy today — turning a hard season into something lasting. This coast knows that spirit; we rebuild every time.
Source: The Civilian Conservation Corps — National Park Service.
Gratitude is remembering that none of this happened by accident. In 1863 — again in the middle of the Civil War — President Lincoln issued the proclamation that set a national day of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November, asking a weary, divided country to pause and count its blessings. Two and a half centuries in, that's still worth doing.
Source: Congress Establishes Thanksgiving — National Archives.
Community is the whole point — neighbors showing up for neighbors. Back in 1736, Benjamin Franklin and a handful of Philadelphians started the Union Fire Company, America's first volunteer fire brigade, and they wrote in one rule that says everything: they would help anyone in distress, not only their own members. That's the America we're celebrating tonight. Welcome home.
Source: Articles of the Union Fire Company, 1736 — Founders Online, National Archives.
Place Makers is right here in the plaza — Suite 26, Emerald Plantation, 8700 Emerald Drive — and tonight we're also the air-conditioned cooling station with free lemonade. Come cool off, see the bows up close, and say hello.
Loved something in the grove? We make custom bows and event décor year-round. Find the shop and get in touch →
Happy 250th, Emerald Isle. — Jodie
Freedom Grove is the line of oak trees decorated for Emerald Isle's Let Freedom Ring celebration on July 4, 2026. Each tree carries a handmade bow, a bell, and a single word — Liberty, Courage, Sacrifice, and more — tied to a real moment in American history, so the walk into the event becomes a short tour through 250 years of freedom. Place Makers created and installed it.
Place Makers — the gift and décor shop in Emerald Plantation — served as the installation artist for the event. Owner Jodie Moore designed and built Freedom Grove, the stage backdrop, the photo-op station, and the bell display. The shop is right in the plaza; stop in and say hello.
Place Makers is in Emerald Plantation at Suite 26, 8700 Emerald Drive, Emerald Isle — right in the plaza, just down the breezeway from the stage. The shop is also the air-conditioned cooling station for the night, with free lemonade. Walk over, cool off, and see the bows up close.