Look around campus for the white oak leaf icon signifying work done by our Sustainability Committee. White oak trees are native to Wisconsin and are common in pre-settlement woodlands. They are also historically significant to Waukesha. Elizabeth Clark had her ailing brother-in-law Col. Richard Dunbar rest under a while oak and drink from a spring on her property in 1868. The water seemingly cured him of his ailments. He bought the land from her and developed the site for tourists to visit and with bottling facilities, thereby starting Waukesha's Springs Era. Water was sold from Bethesda Spring until the 1990s. Bethesda Park, with a clone of the Dunbar Oak, is only four blocks west of Carroll University. For more information about the Springs Era, visit our library or the Waukesha County Historical Society & Museum.