The Champion Red Pine of Indian Boundary

This is the state champion red pine of Illinois, and it holds the title partly for want of competition. The Illinois Big Tree Register lists exactly one red pine anywhere in the state, and this is the one, standing on the Indian Boundary golf course on Chicago's northwest side. Its 153.52 points come from a trunk 6.8 feet around, a height of 64 feet and a crown spreading 31.5 feet, measured and listed in 2026, which doubles as the freshest evidence that it is alive and thriving. Nobody has dated it. Red pine is a northern species, well outside its natural range down here, so this is a planted tree rather than a relic of anything, and the register carries no age field for any entry. Any figure attached to this tree is worked backwards from its trunk rather than measured, and should be read that way. What is documented is the size, and for Pinus resinosa the giveaway is the needles: paired, three to six inches long, snapping cleanly in half when you bend one. Access is the honest problem. Indian Boundary is a public 18 hole course run by the Forest Preserves of Cook County, so walking the fairways generally means paying a green fee, and whether the tree can be seen or reached from outside the course was not established. Ask at the clubhouse before planning the trip.