On Friday morning, in advance of President-Elect Donald Trump's stop in Mobile on Saturday as part of his "thank you tour," a cedar tree was cut down at Public Safety Memorial Park off Government Street in midtown Mobile to be displayed at Ladd-Peebles Stadium for the rally.

As speculation swirled on social media about the reason for the tree's removal, the city affirmed in an email that the tree was cut from the park and installed at the stadium Friday.

Midtown resident Denise Grier was walking her dogs Thursday morning when she saw a crane, a bucket truck, a flatbed truck and about five supervisor trucks "in position to pull out... a magnificent old cedar. It was odd because so many supervisors were there. I knew it was something big."

Her first thought, she said in a phone interview Friday night, was, "We've got to save this tree!"

She waited and watched, and took a photo of the tree surrounded by the trucks. Then, suddenly, the extra-long flatbed truck left. Relieved, Grier also left. She posted her photo in the Nextdoor online community, expressing her concern for the tree.

"It had character. It was gnarly," she said. "I've walked my dogs over there for 20 years. It had sentimental value."

When Grier returned to the park later that day, she said, the tree was still there.

But on Friday morning, she read a comment in her Nextdoor post from a neighbor who said the tree was gone. Where it once stood, near the walking path at the western edge of the park, all that remained of the tree Friday afternoon was the ground-level stump, with about a two-foot section of the trunk covered in Resurrection fern lying nearby.

Meanwhile, just over a mile away from the park at the stadium, a mobile crane hoisted a tree over the side of the north end zone stands, placing it in front of the scoreboard.

On Nextdoor, midtown Mobile residents began to wonder if the missing tree and the tree at the stadium were the same.

One woman said she emailed Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson about it. "Our city parks aren't Christmas tree farms," she wrote. "An old growth tree from a city park for backdrop? Insane."

Grier posted another photo of the tree standing in the stadium on Friday afternoon. "Poor tree," she wrote. "Killed for a ridiculous purpose."

City spokesman George Talbot confirmed in an email late Friday that the tree removed from the park was taken to Ladd-Peebles Stadium.

In an earlier statement, Colby Cooper, chief of staff for the city of Mobile, acknowledged the city's role in procuring the tree.

"The City has gone to great lengths to support the visit of the President-Elect," he said. "A Christmas Tree was needed and the City provided it. We applaud the hard work of the City employees who have done a fabulous job working to make the city and event look great as we prepare to have the world watching Mobile, Alabama tomorrow night."

This story was revised at 12:15 a.m. on Dec. 17, 2016, to reflect that the city confirmed via email that the tree came from the park.