Maryland's Wye Oak is the largest white oak on record in the United States. It towers more than one hundred feet above the ground at Wye Mills, Talbot County, on Maryland's Eastern Shore. The Wye Oak is more than four hundred years old, with branches that spread one hundred sixty-five feet. The circumference of the great oak's trunk one feet above the ground is fifty feet. No one can explain the buttressed roots.
Some people think it dates to when a country store was located on the site.
Horses that were tied to the tree may have bruised the roots when they stamped their feet. The Wye Oak gained notoriety in 1909, when it was photographed and measured by the State Forester. An enlarged print was hung in the Easton Court House. Some dead branches were removed from the Wye Oak in 1914. In 1930, more dead wood was removed, and some of the larger limbs were braced.