Of all the trees in Ohio identified with history, the Logan Elm is the best known and perhaps the most beautiful. This tree as 70 feet tall and had a 7-foot-diameter trunk (measured 6 feet above the ground). The limb spread was 148 feet across. The original site of this tree is now the Logan Elm State Park and is located about 6 miles south of Circleville in Pickaway County.
The Rathborne Elm near Marietta was thought to be the largest elm in the world. At 41/2 feet above the ground, the trunk diameter was 81/3 feet. The crown spread was 132 feet (see below). The Logan and Rathborne Elms are now dead.
Beneath the shade of the Oberlin elms on the campus of Oberlin College, the first log cabin in that community was built. This cabin was the beginning of the college. Oberlin was the first college to unconditionally admit women.
A magnificent hemlock at Old Man's Cave State Park, Logan, has a height of 149 feet and a trunk diameter of 40 inches, 4 1/2 feet above the ground. Many of the trees in the hollows of Old Man's Cave State Park are thought to be part of the original forest.
An early welcome sign for Ohio visitors coming up the Ohio River was a common bald- cypress on the estate of Dr. John A. Warder in North Bend, Ohio. Because of its perfect shape and size, the tree was used as a sighting point by riverboat pilots to negotiate the Great North Bend. Today the site is a subdivision called Aston Oaks, and plans call for the home, the bald-cypress, and two of Ohio's champion trees to be preserved for their historical significance. Dr. Warder was a charter member of the American Forestry Association, host for the AFA's first meeting in Cincinnati, and an early advocate for conservation in the United States.
| Table 1. Some Ohio champion "Big Trees" were compiled from records of the Ohio Forestry Association, 1997. Plants are arranged alphabetically by common name. |
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| Common Name | Scientific Name | Trunk Diameter (inches) |
Height (feet) |
Spread (feet) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| American elm | Ulmus americana | 85 | 118 | 107 |
| American sycamore | Platanus occidentalis | 185 | 129 | 105 |
| Common honeylocust | Gleditsia triacanthos | 74 | 76 | 74 |
| Chinquapin oak | Quercus muehlenbergii | 84 | 72 | 66 |
| Flowering dogwood | Cornus florida | 21 | 26 | 27 |
| Ohio buckeye | Aesculus glabra | 52 | 82 | 67 |
| Osage-orange | Maclura pomifera | 106 | 72 | 86 |
| Red oak | Quercus rubra | 103 | 106 | 84 |
|
White ash |
Fraxinus americana | 80 | 115 | 90 |
| White pine | Pinus strobus | 33 | 152 | 46 |