The Champion Black Cherry of Camp Ground Road Woods

This is the first black cherry on our map, and the Forest Preserves of Cook County rank it the biggest of its kind on all their land. Their surveyors measured it on 5 December 2025: a trunk 3.35 metres round, almost exactly 132 inches, and a height of 29.3 metres, 96 feet. The crown is the odd part. It reaches about 17 metres one way and under 10 the other, nearly twice as long as it is wide, so the tree should look far broader from one side than from the other. That date matters more than usual. Nothing but the register vouches for this cherry, and a measurement from late 2025 is the freshest sign we have that it still stands. Camp Ground Road Woods sits on its own among the trees on this page. The nearest, the county's second-ranked pin oak in St. Paul Woods, is about 6.6 kilometres to the east, and the bur oak savanna of Union Ridge Cemetery about 7.5 kilometres to the south-east. Treat it as a trip of its own. The pin is the register's GPS fix at the trunk. We have found no trail description that leads to it, so if you find the way in, tell us where you started. The register records no age, and we have not guessed one. Nobody has dated this cherry. If you know how old it is, tell us that too.