Records of Cheollipo Arboretum in Taean, South Chungcheong Province, famous as Korea's first private arboretum, have finally become National Registered Cultural Heritage after more than two years of debate.
The Korea Heritage Service announced Tuesday that it would register the "Records Related to the Creation of Cheollipo Arboretum in Taean," which document the process of establishing the arboretum, as National Registered Cultural Heritage. National Registered Cultural Heritage refers to cultural heritage among modern and contemporary assets that were built, produced, or formed more than 50 years ago and are judged to require special preservation and use.
The "Records Related to the Creation of Cheollipo Arboretum in Taean" registered this time are materials written and collected by Min Byung-gal (Carl Ferris Miller, 1921–2002), the founder of Cheollipo Arboretum. They consist of records showing the overall creation and operation of the arboretum, including land purchase documents, tree planting management logs, plant collection records, and correspondence for overseas exchanges. The records are materials written between 1962 and 1989, comprising a total of 56 items across 7 categories.
The Korea Heritage Service assessed that "the series of processes and circumstances through which Cheollipo Arboretum in Taean, Korea's first private arboretum, was created are recorded in relatively fine detail, clearly showing matters concerning the arboretum's creation and operation."
Cheollipo Arboretum is regarded as Korea's first properly established private arboretum. The late Min Byung-gal, who came to Korea as a U.S. Army officer, first purchased and cultivated a 9,000-square-meter plot of land on Cheollipo Beach in 1962. He later expanded it and created the arboretum in 1970. Its current size has grown to approximately 589,000 square meters, and it is home to 16,000 diverse plant species.
The process of registration as National Registered Cultural Heritage was not smooth. According to the Korea Heritage Service, it was first applied for in March 2024 under the name "Min Byung-gal House and Records of Cheollipo Arboretum in Taean." After review by the Korea Heritage Service, an announcement was even issued in March 2025 giving advance notice of registration as National Registered Cultural Heritage under the changed name "Records Related to the Creation of Cheollipo Arboretum in Taean."
However, during the deliberation process, concerns were raised that the quantity of the records needed to be accurately verified, so the registration was "put on hold" and underwent about a year of reinvestigation. It was "approved" in a reexamination this past March, making it effectively a "second attempt" at National Registered Cultural Heritage deliberation.
