Wye Oak State Park, MD

About a half hour from our campground and on our way to St. Michael’s, we stopped in the town of Wye Mills to see the famous Wye Oak, the oldest white oak in the United States. This tree is more than 450 years old, which actually is pretty amazing. It was here even before the Europeans arrived in this area. Unfortunately, it was also the time period I was up to in Michener’s book Chesapeake, which I was desperately, and somewhat obsessively, trying to read while we were still here—only 688 pages to go.

In addition to being the oldest white oak tree in America, the Wye Oak is also the largest, at an impressive 95 feet tall, 37 feet around, and with a crown large enough to shade an area of almost half an acre. This was a very tempting tree for little boys, but unfortunately not one which they were allowed to climb.

In hopes of something more interesting, Andrew and Tom headed over to a small brick building a short distance from the tree in the hopes of being able to spend money in some way. However, all they could do was stare into the window of an old colonial one-room schoolhouse. Tom summed up his Wye Oak experience with the touching words, “Cheap, no gift shop.”

Postcript: 2 years after our trip to Chesapeake, I was saddened to learn that the Wye Oak tree was destroyed in a thunderstorm. I feel fortunate that we can count ourselves among those that were able to see this beautiful tree during its very long lifetime.