Coral Township Witness Tree, Marengo

In the days of early settlement, federally commissioned land surveyors came to map the countryside. During these surveys, trees were often marked to “stand witness”. Few witness trees survive from the 1837 survey of Illinois for the purposes of opening county lands to settlement. While many of these trees died from natural causes, more have been removed by nineteenth and twentieth century farmers as they cleared their lands for agricultural purposes.

This 200 year-old bur oak tree is specifically referred to in the 1837 field notes of John Thompson and his survey crew. They "scribed", or marked, this tree as a quarter section post in the original survey so that land could then be legally described and therefore bought and sold. The old oak and surrounding 50-foot circle are now protected for the future by ordinance, allowing it to once more stand witness to the development of McHenry County.