At 123 feet, Spokane's Heritage Tree Register calls this Norway spruce the second tallest of its kind in the city, and names the tree that beats it: a spruce on 26th Avenue in the Rockwood Historic District, planted in the same era and standing a few feet taller by the register's own account. Norway spruce is a European transplant, planted across American parks and gardens for its speed and its shape rather than for any native claim to the Inland Northwest. This one grows among the champions and rarities Finch Arboretum has collected since the 1940s, sharing the grounds with the state's largest white willow and two of the first dawn redwoods ever brought to the continent. Only the register has looked at it. No second source names the tree or checks its height, so take the 123 feet as one institution's measurement rather than a settled fact, the same caution this page gives its neighbours here. It stands a short walk from the willow and the redwoods, one more stop in an afternoon that is already worth the trip.
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Getting there
John A. Finch Arboretum, Spokane, Washington
You can recognise it by height alone: a single straight spire reaching roughly 123 feet, taller than the other conifers near it. It stands in Finch Arboretum, near the state champion willow.
West Spokane, off Sunset Highway; car or city bus. Same site as spk_002 (State Champion White Willow) and spk_003 (First Dawn Redwoods).
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from. The story was written with AI from these sources, and readers who know the tree correct it.
- In the official register: Spokane Heritage Tree Register (City of Spokane Urban Forestry), no. OBJECTID 422, CityandCountyHistoricProp FeatureServer layer 1
- Spokane Heritage Tree Register (services.arcgis.com/3PDwyTturHqnGCu0/arcgis/rest/services/CityandCountyHistoricProp/FeatureServer/1)
- my.spokanecity.org
- services.arcgis.com