The Second-Ranked Pin Oak of St. Paul Woods

At 31.7 metres, this is the tallest measured pin oak anywhere on our map, and Cook County ranks it only second. The Forest Preserves of Cook County measured it on 15 April 2024: 104 feet tall, a trunk 2.92 metres round, 115 inches, and a crown about 19.5 metres one way and 16.5 the other. Their champion, at Rolling Knolls on the far western edge of this page, is built the other way: 2.7 metres shorter, two-thirds of a metre thicker round, with a crown about 26 metres across. The county's score adds trunk, height and crown together, and the heavier tree wins. The nearest rival in height on our map is the pin oak in Bellevue State Park, Wilmington, Delaware, at 29.3 metres, though at 4.62 metres round it is far stouter. Our Dutch pin oaks, in Apeldoorn, Eindhoven and Haarlem, are thicker too, and lower, between 22 and 24 metres. St. Paul Woods lies about three kilometres south-west of Harms Woods, where the county's third-ranked bur oak stands, with the champion silver maple of Harms Flatwoods just beyond it. Come in October or November, when pin oaks turn dark red to russet. The pin is the register's GPS fix at the trunk, and we have found no trail description that leads to it. The register is the only source and gives no age. Nobody has dated this oak. If you know how old it is, tell us.