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The Wye Oak first drew the attention of the public in 1909, when Fred W. Besley , the first Maryland State Forester, made the first official measurement of the tree. Ten years later, in 1919, it was featured in American Forester magazine. In 1939, the Maryland General Assembly purchased the tree and almost thirty acres surrounding it and established the Wye Oak State Park . In 1940, the American Forestry Association named the Wye Oak one of its first National Champion Trees. By the time of its destruction sixty two years later, only one other tree named that year remained standing.
Dr. Frank Gouin, Professor Emeritus of Horticulture, University of Maryland, impressed both by the age and size of the tree, as well as its unusual resistence to oak wilt fungus and the gypsy moth, led a successful effort to clone the Wye Oak. The first two cloned saplings were planted at Mount Vernon on April 26, 2002.
The site of the Wye Oak remains largely untouched, and the descriptive plaque placed there in 1921 remains at the site. Next to the site of the tree, and also maintained as part Wye Oak State Park, is a one-room brick schoolhouse hailing from the colonial period. It is the second oldest schoolhouse in Talbot County.