You know, there is something kind of magical about driving through the suburbs. Bear with me here. I know we usually associate suburbs with strip malls, endless rows of identical houses, and traffic lights that seem to last forever. And Lewis Center? It’s the poster child for that kind of growth. If you’ve driven up Route 23 lately, you’ve seen it. The orange barrels, the new developments, the hustle.
But if you look past the Starbucks and the gas stations, there is an ancient world hiding in plain sight.
I’m talking about the giants. The silent watchers. The Lewis Center Ohio champion trees.
I’ve always been a bit of a nature nerd, the kind of person who pulls the car over because “that oak tree looks suspicious.” But my obsession with Champion Trees—the official biggest trees of their species—started right here in Delaware County. It’s a treasure hunt, honestly. But instead of gold, you’re looking for a living thing that was probably a sapling when the Constitution was being signed.
If you live around here, or if you’re just passing through, you might not realize that some of the most impressive biological specimens in the state are tucked away in backyards, school districts, and park trails right under our noses.
Let’s go for a walk. I want to tell you about the hunt for these giants.
What Exactly is a “Champion” Tree?
Before we start trekking through the mud at Highbanks, we should probably define what we are actually looking for. A lot of people think a Champion Tree is just the tallest one.
It’s not that simple.
If it were just about height, skinny pines in crowded forests would win every time. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) uses a specific formula to decide who wears the crown. It feels a bit like high school algebra, but it works:
Circumference (in inches) + Height (in feet) + 1/4 of the Average Crown Spread (in feet) = Total Points.
So, a tree might not be the tallest, but if it is incredibly wide—like those massive Sycamores that look like they’ve been lifting weights for three centuries—it can still be a champion.
Why does this matter? Because when you are looking for Ohio champion trees Lewis Center Ohio has to offer, you need to adjust your eyes. You aren’t just looking up; you’re looking out. You’re looking for girth. You’re looking for character.
The Lewis Center Landscape: Development vs. Nature
Lewis Center is an interesting place for tree hunting. It sits in Orange Township, which has been one of the fastest-growing areas in the state for years.
Usually, development is the enemy of big trees. Bulldozers aren’t known for their sentimentality. They flatten the land to pour concrete slabs. But Delaware County has a unique topography. We have the Olentangy River cutting right through it, and the Alum Creek reservoir nearby.
These waterways create ravines. And developers hate ravines. They are too steep to build houses on.
So, while the cornfields got turned into cul-de-sacs, the ravines were left alone. And that is where the old ones survived. When you search for champion trees near Lewis Center Ohio, you are almost always going to be directed toward these water sources. The ravines acted like accidental nature preserves, protecting these giants from the plow and the bulldozer for two hundred years.
Highbanks Metro Park: The Holy Grail
You can’t talk about big trees in this area without bowing down to Highbanks Metro Park. It is the crown jewel of the Columbus Metro Parks system, and it sits right on the border of Lewis Center.
If you want to see what this land looked like before we covered it in asphalt, this is where you go.
Highbanks is famous for its massive shale bluffs overlooking the Olentangy River, but the forest atop those bluffs is ancient. There are trees in there that feel less like plants and more like monuments.
The Bald Cypress Mystery
There is a funny thing about tree hunting. Sometimes, you find things that shouldn’t be there. While not always “champions” on the state list, the park is home to trees that feel out of place and massive.
I remember hiking the Overlook Trail a few years back, just trying to clear my head. I walked past an Oak that was so wide I couldn’t have wrapped my arms around a quarter of it. It stops you in your tracks. You touch the bark—rough, deep grooves—and you realize that this tree was standing here when the Adena culture people were building the mounds located just a few hundred yards away.
That’s the connection. The history isn’t just in the books; it’s in the wood.
The Search within the School District
Now, this is where it gets a little tricky, and where you have to be a bit of a detective. A lot of people searching for Ohio champion trees Delaware County USD Lewis Center areas are looking for specific coordinates.
“USD” usually implies a Unified School District (a term more common out west), but here we are talking about the Olentangy Local School District. The district lines sprawl across Lewis Center, Powell, and parts of Westerville.
Why does the school district matter? Because some of the biggest trees are actually preserved on land owned by the schools or adjacent to them.
I’ve seen fantastic specimens tucked behind elementary schools near the treelines. Schools often have large tracts of land that remain undeveloped for future expansion or sports fields. In those “in-between” spaces, big trees thrive.
There is a particular excitement in looking at the map of the school district, finding the green patches, and wondering, “Is there a monster Walnut tree in there?”
The Sycamores of Alum Creek
If Highbanks is the land of the Oaks, Alum Creek is the kingdom of the Sycamore.
The American Sycamore is the ghost of the Ohio woods. You can spot them a mile away because their bark peels off at the top, revealing this bone-white, smooth wood underneath. They look like skeletons against the winter sky.
And they get huge.
If you head over toward the trails around Alum Creek State Park (just a stone’s throw from Lewis Center proper), you can find Sycamores with root systems that look like tangled snakes.
I found one near the shoreline once that was hollow. A hollow tree usually sounds like it’s dying, but Sycamores can live for decades with a hollow center. I stepped inside it. Literally inside the tree. There was enough room for three people to stand in there out of the rain.
It’s moments like that where you understand why people get obsessed with Lewis Center Ohio champion trees. It’s not about the stats on a piece of paper. It’s about standing inside a living organism and feeling completely safe.
How to Find Them (Without Trespassing)
This is the most important part of this article. Please, if you take nothing else away, take this: Do not trespass.
Many of the official Ohio Champion Trees are on private property. The Big Tree Program, run by the Division of Forestry, maintains a list, but they don’t always publish exact addresses for this very reason. Imagine having a state champion tree in your backyard and waking up to find three guys with tape measures trampling your petunias.
So, how do you hunt for champion trees near Lewis Center Ohio without getting the cops called on you?
- Stick to Public Lands: Start with Highbanks, Alum Creek, and the smaller township parks (like Shale Hollow—hidden gem alert!). Shale Hollow is fantastic because it’s deep in a ravine. The trees there reach for the sun, growing incredibly tall and straight.
- Use the Eyes: Look for the “Wolf Trees.” A Wolf Tree is an old forest terminology. It refers to a tree that grew when the land was a pasture, not a forest. Because it had no competition, it spread its branches wide, horizontally. Later, the forest grew up around it, but that big, wide, gnarly tree is still there in the middle. They are usually the oldest things in the woods.
- Check the ODNR Website: The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has a database. You can filter by county. Look for Delaware County. It will tell you the species and the general dimensions. If it lists a park, you’re golden. If it lists a private owner, admire the stats and move on.
You can actually check out the mechanics of how they measure these giants at the Ohio Division of Forestry website. It’s fascinating to see the math behind the magic.
The Species You Will Meet
When you are scanning the horizon for Ohio champion trees Lewis Center Ohio champion trees hunters usually encounter the “Big Three” of Central Ohio:
1. The White Oak
The king. They grow slow and they live forever. A big White Oak has light gray, flaky bark. Their branches can be as thick as the trunks of other trees.
2. The Cottonwood
These are the speed demons. They grow fast and they get massive, especially near water. They aren’t as strong as Oaks; they drop branches constantly. But in terms of sheer biomass? They are monsters. You’ll see them along the Olentangy River banks.
3. The Black Walnut
These are the valuable ones. Dark bark, distinctive smell. They produce a chemical that stops other plants from growing under them, so they often stand in a clear patch of ground, looking regal and a bit unfriendly.
A Story of a Near Miss
I have to tell you about a wild goose chase I went on last autumn. I had heard a rumor—just a rumor—about a massive Osage Orange tree near the railroad tracks that cut through the edge of Lewis Center.
Osage Oranges are weird trees. They have gnarly, twisted wood and they drop those green “monkey brain” fruits that rot and smell distinct. They were used by farmers as natural fences before barbed wire was invented because they are thorny and impenetrable.
I spent three weekends looking for this thing. I was cross-referencing old maps, looking for old fence lines.
I was searching for ohio champion trees delaware county usd lewis center boundaries, trying to figure out if the land was school property or railroad property.
Finally, I found it. It wasn’t a champion. It wasn’t even close to a record breaker. It was just two medium-sized trees grown together that looked like one giant from a distance.
Was I disappointed? For about five minutes. Then I sat on a stump, ate a granola bar, and watched a Red-tailed Hawk hunt in the field next to the tracks. It was quiet. The sun was setting, turning the dry cornfields gold.
I didn’t find the champion, but I found a quiet hour in a busy week. That counts as a win.
Why We Need to Protect Them
Here is the sad truth. We are losing them.
Big trees are fragile. They are susceptible to lightning strikes because they are the tallest things around. They are susceptible to wind storms. And they are susceptible to us.
When a new subdivision goes in, the grading of the soil changes the drainage. A tree that has been happy for 150 years suddenly gets too much water, or not enough. Its roots get compacted by heavy machinery. It might take five years to die, but the damage is done on day one.
That is why identifying and celebrating these Lewis Center Ohio champion trees is so important. If we know they are there, we can fight for them. We can design the neighborhood around the tree, rather than cutting it down.
There is a movement in landscape architecture now called “preservation banking,” where developers get credit for saving mature trees. We need more of that in Delaware County.
How You Can Get Involved
You don’t have to be a botanist to be a tree hunter. You just need a tape measure and curiosity.
If you find a tree that you think is a contender, measure it. Wrap the tape around the trunk at 4.5 feet off the ground (that’s “breast height” in forestry terms). If the number is huge, you might have something.
Take a picture. Note the location.
You can submit nominations to the state. Imagine that—finding a tree in a patch of woods behind a strip mall and getting it listed as a state champion. That’s a legacy.
The Seasonal Shift
One of the best things about tree hunting in Ohio is the seasons.
Spring: The structure is still visible, but the green haze of buds is starting. It’s muddy, but the air smells like wet earth.
Summer: This is the hardest time to hunt. The foliage is so thick you can’t see the trunk shape from a distance. Plus: mosquitoes.
Fall: The glory time. The maples turn red, the oaks turn russet. You can spot different species just by color.
Winter: My favorite. The “bones” of the tree are exposed. You can see the architecture of the branches. A massive oak in winter looks like a crack of lightning frozen in wood.
When you search for ohio champion trees lewis center ohio in the winter, you are seeing the trees as they really are, without the decoration of leaves.
A Note on “The USD” and Local geography
I want to circle back to that search term again—ohio champion trees delaware county usd lewis center. It’s a mouthful, isn’t it?
It highlights how we search for things now. We are looking for the intersection of nature and our administrative lives. We want to know what is in our district, our backyard.
The Olentangy watershed, which feeds into the definition of this area, is critical. The trees here are fed by limestone-rich soil. That’s why they get so big. The calcium in the soil helps build strong wood. So, when you are walking the trails of the Olentangy, thank the glaciers that melted 10,000 years ago and left all this good dirt behind.
If you want to understand the geology that allows these trees to grow, the Ohio Geological Survey has some great maps of the bedrock in Delaware County. It explains why we have ravines and why the soil is so fertile.
Conclusion: The Giants Are Waiting
So, next time you are driving down Route 23, stuck at a red light, look to the right or left. Look past the sign for the new car wash.
Look for the dark green canopy rising above the rooftops.
There is a world of giants living among us in Lewis Center. They were here before the roads, before the schools, before us. And if we are careful, and respectful, they will be here long after we are gone.
Go find them. Take your kids. Take your dog. Or just take yourself.
There is a Lewis Center Ohio champion tree out there waiting for you to look up and say, “Wow.”
FAQs
Q: Can I climb a Champion Tree if I find one?
A: generally, no. Especially in Metro Parks like Highbanks, climbing trees is prohibited to protect both you and the tree. Old trees can have brittle branches, and repetitive climbing damages the bark.
Q: How do I know if a tree is a “Champion”?
A: You have to measure it and compare it to the current list on the ODNR Division of Forestry website. If you think you beat the current record, you can submit a nomination for a forester to verify.
Q: Are there any Champion trees right in the middle of Lewis Center subdivisions?
A: Yes! Developers often leave “grandparent trees” in common areas or at the entrances of neighborhoods. Keep your eyes peeled in the older sections of the Wedgewood or Alum Creek areas.
Q: What is the biggest tree species in Delaware County?
A: In terms of sheer girth, the Sycamores usually win. In terms of height, you might find some massive Tuliptrees (Tulip Poplar) that shoot straight up like telephone poles.
Q: Do I need special gear to go tree hunting?
A: Not really. Good boots are a must because the biggest trees are often in the wettest, muddiest parts of the ravines. A flexible sewing tape measure is handy if you want to check circumference.