Big Tree

The Senator is one of the oldest and largest cypress trees in America. Seminole Indians and other Native Americans throughout Central Florida used it as a landmark. A hurricane in 1925 destroyed the top of the tree, reducing its original height of 165 feet to 118 feet. In the late 1800s, it attracted visitors even though much of the surrounding land was swamp and reaching it required leaping from log to log. A walkway was later built by the Works Progress Administration. In 1927, Senator M.O. Overstreet donated the tree and surrounding land to Seminole County for a park. In 1929, former President Calvin Coolidge visited and dedicated the site. The plaque and portions of an iron fence were stolen in 1945 and never recovered. In 1993, the American Forestry Association estimated the tree's age at 3,500 years, with a diameter of 17 1/2 feet, a circumference of 425 inches, a height of 118 feet, and approximately 50,000 board feet of wood.

Florida · United States