There is a tree, nearly a quarter century old, hidden among boarded up buildings and freshly razed lots in South Fairmount. The tree is one of only 90 surviving trees like it documented in the world.

And it slated to be cut down sometime in the next two years.

Thousands drive by the sycamore every day at the foot of the Western Hills Viaduct. Most have probably never noticed the 30-foot tall tree, but NASA has. It's a moon tree, specifically a second-generation moon tree, a tree whose seeds have taken the long way to find home.

The journey of the tree, and others like it, started in 1971 when Apollo 14 launched from Kennedy Space Center. Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell and Stuart Roosa were making mankind's third trip to the moon.

Roosa was a former U.S. Forest Service smoke jumper, a firefighter that parachutes into remote forest fires. His former employer asked him to conduct an experiment and take a batch of tree seeds into space.

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Roosa carried between 400 and 500 loblolly pine, sycamore, sweetgum, redwood and Douglas fir seeds in his personal kit on the mission. As the command module pilot, Roosa did not go with his two fellow astronauts when they boarded the lunar module and headed to the moon. So the seeds, like Roosa, went a long way but never actually took a walk on the moon.

The seeds came home safely and were returned to U.S. Forest Service which wanted to see if they would grow. They did. By 1975 many of the trees were old enough to be transplanted. Most were planted in celebration of the country's bicentennial the next year, but no one really kept track where they went. As time passed, the trees were largely forgotten.

It wasn't until 20 years later when a third-grade teacher in Indiana asked her pupils to write about local trees. One student remarked about seeing a plaque on a tree at a Girl Scout Camp. The class wrote to NASA for more information.

"Never heard of them," NASA replied, but the message was passed to Dave Williams, curator for NASA's National Space Science Data Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Williams did some leg work of his own. He found many of those who worked on the Apollo mission didn't even remember the trees. But he did find information on some plantings, and eventually created a website to compile a list of known moon trees.

In 2011, Williams was still searching for the trees and issued a national press release seeking information in the lead up to the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 14 launch.

Lo and behold

After reading an article about the search in The Enquirer that year, Dennis Smith contacted NASA about the moon tree planted behind his Paper Products Company building on Queen City Avenue.

"I bought it in 1992 and was going to give it away at a trade show because of sustainability," Owner Dennis Smith said. "We make paper boxes here."

Smith's father started the company in 1932 making cardboard cake circles for bakers. He cut them out using discarded razors from a barbershop and old automobile valves. Reducing waste and make the most of the resources available is in the DNA of the company.

Smith's giveaway didn't go as planned. The longtime member of the Cincinnati Astronomical Society decided to the keep the tree and plant it himself.

Smith, now 74, said he thinks his "second-generation" moon tree was grown from seeds or cuttings from a first-generation tree at the University of Texas in Austin. He ordered it from a company specializing in historic trees.

NASA's search has counted 55 living first-generation moon trees in the U.S. and two in Brazil. It also documented another 20 trees in the U.S. that have died. Only 34 second-generation moon trees have been documented, and only one has died, according to the NASA website.

Compared to control seeds, researchers found no differences between moon trees and their Earth-bound siblings.

The South Fairmount moon tree is one of only three listed in Ohio. A first-generation tree stands in Friendship Park outside Steubenville, and another second-generation tree lives on a private residence in Canal Winchester, Ohio.

"I still to this day am an amateur astronomer. I have been tracking earth's satellites since I was 15 years old," Smith said. "I'm still interested in it. Once it gets in you, you know. Maybe it's a little nerdy thing, but at my age, I don't care anymore. It's just my hobby."

The Paper Products Company building, built in 1900 and obtained by Smith's father in 1947, is now boarded up and owned by the Metropolitan Sewer District. Smith moved his company to West Chester in 2015.

"They needed our property down there," Smith said.

The MSD's $193 million Lick Run Project is scheduled to bring down 91 buildings, sheds and garages in the neighborhood. The project is designed to keep stormwater out of the combined sewer system, and will include new storm sewers, storm water detention basins, biofiltration gardens and the creation of a mile-long constructed waterway that will mimic a natural stream.

As part of the project, the famous sycamore will be removed. The removal has not been scheduled, but the project is scheduled for completion in 2018.

However, the support of Smith and others means the Cincinnati moon tree will have a legacy. The MSD had Lagergren Nursery in Hamilton make clones of the moon tree, which will be planted through the new greenspace.

Smith worked to save the tree, collecting letters from local astronomy organization and requesting help from the families of notable astronauts. While Smith believes it's important for people to remember the trees as a symbol of our nation's lunar missions, he seems to be at peace with the compromise.

"A couple people have suggested that maybe we chop the tree up and sell it as moon mulch, which I thought was pretty funny," he said.

He also gets the pleasure of looking at a moon tree each day he works at the new location in Fairfield.

"We had a graft made from that tree down there," Smith said. "It's in our front yard and it's growing. It's about 7 feet tall."