Just east of the Shawano Recreation Center is a large red oak tree growing.
There are several oak trees in this family, and this one is a northern red oak.
The first interest in this large tree began in a 1983, when Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources forester Tom Albrecht wrote an article about it in the Oct. 21, 1983, Shawano Evening Leader. Albrecht had measured the tree, and at that time, it was 2 inches shy of 5 feet in diameter. It was also believed at that time, to be the largest northern red oak tree in Wisconsin.
In June 2000, the city of Shawano was improving Division Street, and they had plans to widen the street some. The reconstruction of the street was going move the sidewalk to the south to a point where this large tree was going to be in the way. The big tree would have surely been cut down had it not been for the activism of John McCormick, who lived in the apartment building where the large oak was growing.
“The tree is a symbol of Shawano’s history,” McCormick kept telling the city officials.
In the June 1, 2000, Shawano Leader reporter Amy Weaver wrote an article about the threat to the tree and McCormick’s fight to save it. Weaver took a photo of McCormick by the massive oak. McCormick’s interest in this magnificent tree was successful in saving it.
Since the 2000 article in the Leader, a bigger red oak tree was located. It is in Dane County near the Eagle Effigy Mounds. It is 241 inches in circumference and 6.4 feet in diameter. But it has been hit by lightning and hard telling how long this tree will last.
On May 6, 2026, Mike Homan and I measured the Division Street red oak. It came out to 232 inches in circumference, and that equates to 6.15 feet in diameter. This tree grew 1.33 feet in diameter since Albrecht measured it in 1983, 42 years ago.
Through the years, arborists have come up with a formula to determine a trees age. Not all trees grow at the same rate each year, so they are given a species-specific growth factor. The growth factor for red oak in Wisconsin is 4. According to the formula, we multiply the tree’s diameter in inches by 4 to get the age. 73.9 times 4 equals 295.6 years old.
This is not exact. For example, this tree could have germinated in a dense forest setting, which would be minimal growth for who knows how long, even decades. Then it could have been smashed down by a falling tree. There is no real way of telling, besides maybe doing a core boring with an increment borer.
I think we know enough about this big tree to say that this red oak has been around much longer than the city of Shawano or Shawano County. Maybe it will survive long enough to become the largest northern red oak in Wisconsin.
In the fall of 2012, I stopped by the big red oak and picked up a handful of acorns. I took them home and put them in water. Two of them sank to the bottom, which were the good ones. I put them in the ground Oct. 24, 2012, about an inch or so deep and covered them up (You have to think like a squirrel).
The trees grows steadily to this day.
John Mutter Jr. is pictured with a descendant of the Division Street Northern Red Oak Tree on Oct. 30, 2025. It was grown from acorns buried in the ground in 2012. (Wendy Johnson)
John Mutter Jr.
