Picture Connecticut: Now That's A Tree

SIMSBURY, CT — The next installment of the Picture Connecticut series takes us to the Pinchot Sycamore, located at 20 Hartford Road (Route 185) in Simsbury at the Bataan Corregidor Memorial Bridge over the Farmington River.

It is considered to be the largest tree in Connecticut. Its trunk measures more than 28 feet around and 100 feet tall. Much of that is not visible from the roadway, though, due to the tree being nestled in Pinchot Sycamore Park, a small bowl-like recreation ground that contains a launching point for small boats and canoes into the river.

Located at the base of Talcott Mountain, the tree and park offer a stellar view of the Heublein Tower atop the mountain. Hundreds of visitors stop by each year to take family photographs encircling the massive trunk. At night, the tree is illuminated by floodlights.

The sycamore, estimated to be between 200 and 300 years old, was dedicated in 1965 to Gifford Pinchot, a former Simsbury resident who was the country's first head of the U.S. Forestry Service, as appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt and later became Governor of Pennsylvania.

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Picture Connecticut is a weekly Patch series featuring images of the state, past and present.

Previous featured images:

• Lafayette Tour Monument