That is one cool old oak tree.
Zim, we have an original witness tree in Roscommon, a village in the n.e. corner of our county. It was used by Wm. S. Burt back in 1852 when the first survey was done in this county. To look at the tree you'd swear it wasn't anywhere near that old, because I doubt it is even 24 inches across, but it must have been fairly decent sized when Mr. Burt used it 167 years ago.
Holy smokes J. Morse, Mr. Burt got around a bit as he was one of the prominent surveyors here in south-central Wisconsin in the 1850's!
He, along with William Canfield did much of the early work in my area. Mr. Canfield took extensive notes of their original surveys as they were required to do under their US Government contracts.
These records are all on file and also recorded digitally at the local courthouse and make for fascinating reading. It was a great pleasure early on in my career to read these notes and re-establish
many of the corners here in Sauk County.
Mike, I am sure you know of Honey Creek here in Sauk County, did you know that William Canfield named it as such because of the bee trees that lined its bank and the excess honey that flowed out of them into the stream? That was even before your time back in 48, (1848 that is) It was incredible what the early surveyors went through, considering there were few roads, even fewer communities and tough to resupply, not to mention hostile natives, disease and so forth. All for a dollar a mile. Think of the poor fellers that got the contract in the northern part of our state that had to meander all the lakes they ran into. Lost Land Lake (you can google it) is a prime example.
ZIm