The Battery Kemble Chestnut Oak

The largest tree in Washington may owe its size to having been cut down. In 1861 the Union Army built Battery Kemble on this hill to defend the capital from the west, and the standard practice at the city's earthworks was to clear the ground for a field of fire, felling trees about five feet above the soil. Chestnut oak, unusually among oaks, resprouts readily from a cut stump. This tree's low, wide, multi stemmed form is exactly what that produces, which is why every account says it was around before the Civil War instead of giving it a planting date. The measurements do the rest of the talking. Casey Trees' volunteer big tree survey crowned it the city's largest known tree in 2023, at 24 feet 3 inches around, and American Forests lists it as a national co-champion, meaning no bigger chestnut oak has been recorded anywhere in the United States. Take the 165 years as a floor: the root system under those stems could be considerably older than the trunks standing on it. It grows in a quiet neighbourhood park in the Palisades rather than downtown, and no source publishes coordinates for the tree itself. The pin is the park, so the last stretch is done on foot and by eye. At that circumference, you will know it when you reach it.