The writers of Marion County Writers Workshop have written a collaborative fiction story

about the Peace Tree, titled The Peace Tree Mystery. The novel is a mystery story about the disappearance of the Peace Tree, which was a giant sycamore tree that has stood since the late 1700s on the banks of the Des Moines River where Native Americans and later, white settlers, gathered to engage in peace talks and treaties. Marion County Writers Workshop Founder Mike Van Natta spoke with KNIA/KRLS News about the book.

“About a year and a half ago we started writing the book and it just all came together. We decided we wanted a more light-hearted novel that involved the local area and history. The Peace Tree was in the middle of it and we decided to do a mystery with the Peace Tree being gone. People had left the group and writing stopped for a bit, but during the pandemic, one of our writers decided he was going to put this together, and around that time, I was planning on starting a publication business. For the last six months, we have been working to get it ready to publish. We are hoping to release it this July.”

For more on the Peace Tree Mystery, tune in to Tuesday’s Let’s Talk Knoxville