Washington Era Oak

Mount Vernon Scarlet Oak

This Scarlet Oak tree from the grounds of George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate was blown down in a severe wind storm in 2009. While there was no way to determine exactly which year this tree started life due to the trunk being hollow and the remaining base wood rotten, another oak tree which grows within one hundred feet of it was dated to the year 1783 by a core sample from the Oxford Dendrochronology Laboratory, Oxfordshire, UK. Dean Norton, director of grounds and gardens, states that this Scarlet Oak tree is most likely older due to the fact that the diameter at breast height was four to five inches larger than the tree that still grows there today.