The Earlysville White Oak is majestic and when I told my son that it took root more than 200 years before Jefferson was even born, well I think we were utterly enchanted.
With a 292-foot circumference at breast height, the Earlysville Oak is the second-largest white oak in Virginia. At last count, the mammoth tree stands 75 feet tall and sports an 85-foot crown (the measurement from branch tip to branch tip). That’s large enough to hold a humpback whale in its canopy with room to spare. Virginia’s champion white oak, a 500-year-old tree in Brunswick County, is reportedly 331 feet in circumference with a 120-foot crown.