Maryland Maryland's official white oak is even more famous than Connecticut's Charter Oak. The Wye Oak is the largest white oak on record in the United States. More than 400 years old, it towers more than one hundred feet above the ground at Wye Mills, Talbot County, on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Its great branches spread one hundred sixty-five feet, and the circumference of the trunk one foot 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.