The Champion Basswood of Busse Forest South

This is the biggest basswood on all the land of the Forest Preserves of Cook County, first in their champion tree register. Its trunk is 3.91 metres round, and it stands 24.4 metres tall under a crown about 16 metres one way and 17 the other. The same preserve holds the county's third-ranked basswood, about 730 metres to the north, and the two are an instructive pair. They are exactly the same height, 24.4 metres each. The difference is all in the trunk: this one is 80 centimetres thicker round, and the register ranks it first and the other third. Stand at one and then the other, and you are looking at the same species, the same height and the same woods, with the champion simply carrying more wood. Busse Forest South holds a third ranked tree as well, the county's second-ranked sugar maple, about two and a half kilometres to the east and twelve metres taller than either basswood. Together they make a long walk past three trees the county has measured and ranked. The register records the size and place but no measurement date, and nothing about age. Nobody has dated this basswood. If you know how old it is, or when it was last measured, tell us.