Very impressive for a tree that's able to grow (as a shrub) all the way to the arctic tree-line.

I could be way off on the height of this one and a little off on the diam. but it was big enough to catch my attention and admiration. Beautiful day with high 80's.

Thanks Embothrium!

Maybe if you look at the location details in the American Forests listing it might actually be possible to find and view the champion sometime. Or somebody else talks about it somewhere on the web, gives enough additional information to be able to locate it yourself.

Koochiching County, MN is north east of my place (2-1/2 to 3 hr drive). Just north, in fact, of the county that contains "The lost Forty" SNL. We still talk about getting up that way but my better half is not nearly as interested in these types of things so I'll have to work at it.

I see American Forests isn't in fact providing enough detail with the tree listings to tell where they are - other than somewhere in a particular County (seems like I have seen locations given by them in the past that were a little more specific, but maybe not*). And they have a different White Spruce now, one from MT.

http://www.americanforests.org/big-trees/white-spruce-picea-glauca-2/

There is also this:

https://treesdb.azurewebsites.net/Browse/Species/Picea%20glauca%20(White%20Spruce)/Details

If you open the above Trees Database page and click on hyper-linked measurements of individual examples in the table on the right profiles of each tree open with much more location detail than AF provides. Unfortunately it looks like no MN examples of White Spruce are in the file.

*I know one of the State coordinators and I may be confusing location information he has had with what AF puts on their web site

It is possible too that in MN, some of these trees reside on private land, so maybe it was requested not to state a specific location. Also, paper company and state owned land is often in remote locations with access from main roads only by logging trails/minimum maintenance roads, some of which are inaccessible during warmer months because of swampy/lake like conditions and can be overgrown from lack of use.

In times past we would use ATV (four wheelers) during summer months to explore much of the state forest land in my area. Even trailered them to areas we heard about from others who we met along the way. We weren't trying specifically to locate any area or tree in particular but enjoyed many of the hidden treasures of cliffs, ravines, waterfalls, many large trees and even a 1/4 mile long, 4 ft. high beaver dam along the way.

Then there are those of us who go on a particular vacation partly to see a specific tree! For scale, that is me in the red circle on the left.

El Gran Arbol de Tule

For more about this and other large surviving Taxodium mucronatum...

http://www.conifers.org/cu/Taxodium_mucronatum.php

Embo, it may not be a champion but the Dorset tree, judging from the trees in your link, is right up there with the best of them.

Sara, amazing how a tree can live that long.

Can't say I've been to Dorset, but it sounds like a nice little town. Minnesota has a lot of those. It's always a joy to find an impressive specimen when you weren't expecting it. Nice find.

you lost me at biking .. lol.. ken

'you lost me at biking'

:-) Something we've done once a year, sometimes with the kids & grand kids, other than that, just a mile or two around the neighborhood a time or two a week. It's all asphalted RR grade so no more than a 3% grade up or down but a lot of it's almost level so no great exertion necessary.