The Chinkapin Oak of National Grove

This is the only chinkapin oak on our map, and it happens to be the biggest one the Forest Preserves of Cook County have found on all their land. The county measured it in July 2024 and ranked it first of its species in their champion tree register. Its trunk is 3.72 metres round, and it stands 29.3 metres tall, exactly the height of the county's champion white oak at Red Gate Woods. Its crown spreads about 25 metres one way and 23 the other, close to round, a fraction narrower than the champion pin oak's at Rolling Knolls. The point of coming to National Grove is that it does not stand alone. About 240 metres to the south is the county's third-ranked hackberry, and about 125 metres beyond that the third-ranked cottonwood, 5.82 metres round and 39 metres tall. Three ranked trees of three different species in under 400 metres make this the second walk on the page, after Thatcher Woods to the north. Of those three, the oak is the only champion. That title is about size on preserve land, not age, and the register keeps no age for any of its trees. It is also the only source for this one. Nobody has dated this oak. If you know how old it is, tell us.