American beech, Colorado State Champion

The largest of its kind in the state of Colorado, It is a very rare tree to be planted here. Fagus grandifolia misses the rain, humidity and acidic soils of its' domain east of the Mississippi River. It actaully tends to stay east of 85 degrees W except in Texas, Arkansas, and SE Missouri and Louisiana where it crosses the mighty Mississippi and dreams of the west.

This is the end of the road for this champ, as you can see the normally smooth bark has cracks in it, most of the trunck and branches are dead or dying.

The Cemetary it was planted in was laid out in 1904 and most of the trees were planted in the first 10 years. 90 to 100 years is a long time to survive in a climate so different from where one wants to be