 In the summer of 1937 , the Mingo Oak scarcely sprouted leaves on only a couple of its branches . In February 1938 , biologist Earl M. Vanscoy wrote in Castanea that the tree was " almost dead " due to the release of poisonous gases and sulfur fumes from a coal spoil tip of the Island Creek Coal Company , which had been burning nearby in Trace Gap . In the spring of 1938 , the tree failed to produce any leaves . White oaks flower in the spring at approximately the same time as their leaves form , between late March and late May . On May 4 , 1938 , West Virginia 's state forester , D. B. Griffin , announced that the Mingo Oak was dead . Griffin also noted that a fungus that only lived on dead or dying trees had been present on the tree for several months prior to its death . The prevailing theory is that the tree died as a result of suffocation from the fumes of the burning pile of coal waste ; however , local media initially reported that the tree was killed as a result of fungal growth . 
