Reply to Burr Oak Tree in McBaine

How old is this beautiful tree. There is a cement Stub for a plaque but missing.

Have read that it is estimated to be about 300 yrs old. Have also seen approx 250 yrs.

My guess is 310 years 274 days, and that is taking in to account all of the leap years, which is considerable. But, I have been wrong before about other things.

From the columbiamissourian dot com
Arborists work to preserve McBaine bur oak tree
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 | 12:01 a.m. CDT

Williamson, who owns the McBaine oak, also has an older graft of the tree in his front yard. Williamson was happy to see the original tree trimmed, grafted and pampered because it’s part of his family history.

“It’s kind of a historic landmark,” he said. “College students and people from the university have been coming down here to look at it all my life. My dad, who was born in 1902, remembered it as a big tree. It’s obviously genetically superior, but it’s also lucky.”

The MU Forestry Club bore a hole into the tree in the 1950s and counted the rings from the sample, Williamson said. They estimated the tree to be about 300 years old, so Williamson now considers it 350 years old and in good health, despite the fact that the McBaine oak has been struck by lightning several times and was surrounded by 6 feet of water for six weeks during floods in 1993.

“Trees don’t really heal like humans,” Russell said. “They just seal off the wound and form calluses, which stops it from decaying any further. This year, I went back and checked it, and it seems to be healing quite well.”

Russell was surprised to see more than half an inch of callus wood over the cuts where limbs had been trimmed away last year — something that usually takes years.

The tree has an official circumference of 287 inches and is 90 feet tall with a limb spread of 130 feet, according to the National Register of Big Trees. It has been the Missouri Champion bur oak for 22 years, Williamson said, and it is the national co-champion, tied with a tree in Woodford, Ky.

Excellent Trek! Very interestng, a truly "awesome" sight, a highlight of the Katy for sure.

The tree is an awesome sight--it's beautiful. It took seven of us joining hands to enclose the entire tree!

We were just thru Mc Baine. Is the tree visible from the trail. Nothing of that size was evident from the trail or trailhead in a very small town -- pop.19.

It's actually off a country road a bit west of McBaine--first road east of Katfish Katy's, turn right and go a short distance. The tree will be on the east side of the road.

The tree has it's own facebook page here http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Big-Tree-in-McBaine/131942922676

I measured the tree around at chest height in 2012 it came to 24 feet around. The tree was fully mature probably 50 years old when Lewis and Clark came through. The rich soil from the Missouri River has given the Burr Oak Tree a life of growth like no other. It's just a miracle that it still stands due to the river. I had a friend take a picture of me and my 97 GMC Yukon park on the highway next to it and the tree looks bigger around than my truck, the branches on the tree are larger than most trees I've ever cut and I burnt wood my whole life there's always something special about standing next to something so old and the history that has been around it, you it left me impressed!

It's funny, when you see this tree from the trail, its size is deceiving. I bet people go by and don't realize it's a state champ and national co-champ. Loved reading the history of it, thanks!