IRVINGTON — The Kile Oak, noted as one of the largest and oldest trees in Indiana, is located at 5939 Beechwood Ave. in Irvington and has been preserved and protected as a natural landmark for over 120 years. This spring, the massive bur oak that is estimated to be nearly 400 years old, saw spring volunteers come for its annual clean-up. On Saturday, May 13, from 9 a.m.-3 p.m., 17-year-old Sam Wilkes from Troop 133 will be out, fulfilling his Eagle Scout project by demolishing the old fence to make way for a new one. Other scouts from the troop will help with the labor.
To support the work, the Benton House Association and Historic Landmarks Foundation recently raised over $2,000 in a GoFundMe campaign to buy materials for the project. The president of the Benton House Association, Lisa Watson, started the fund.
The Kile Oak is an impressive tree — 87 feet tall, five feet across, with a crown diameter of 122 feet. The Kile Oak has been recognized as the largest tree of its kind within any municipal boundary in Indiana and honored by the Indiana Arborist Association as its “outstanding tree” in 1973. The International Society of Arboriculture and the National Arborist Association also designated it a “Bicentennial Tree” in 1976 as a “living witness” to the American Revolutionary period because of its estimated age of almost 400 years.
To get a little perspective on how old the Kile Oak is, it would have been “born” around in the 1620s, just as the Jamestown colony was getting established, and King Charles I had yet to ascend the throne of England. Shakespeare’s First Folio, the first collection of his plays, was published.
Through the efforts of the Irvington Garden Club, the National Wildlife Federation named the Kile Oak property a Backyard Wildlife Habitat in 2013. It has been lovingly tended to by volunteers who regularly pick up trash, pull invasive weeds, and keep a watchful eye on the property.
The descendants of the Kile Oak are many; State Forestry personnel in 1932 successfully gathered over 82,000 acorns from the tree and made them available for reforestation throughout the state.
Today, the Kile Oak is a place of refuge and quiet in the midst of the city. Visitors are encouraged to respect the space and the natural flora and fauna of the habitat.
