There is a remnant of the great virgin forest of 280 years ago in Greater Cleveland. The remnant is in the North Chagrin Reservation of the Cleveland MetroParks. It's near Strawberry Lane--maybe a half mile hike through the woods. There are only 15 giant white pine trees left. They are in a deep forest of beech, Canadian Hemlock, red oak, sugar maple, and the other trees, shrubs, wildflowers and fungi of the Northeast Ohio climax sugar-maple beech forest.
The white pines average 148 feet tall. They are mostly on the edge of a deep ravine. The trees were seedlings in the early 1730's, almost 50 years before the founding of the United States of America. In 1730 there were very few Indians in this area. It was a kind of no-man's land after the annihilation of the Erie Indians, the Cat Nation, around 1655. And there were probably no white settlers in the area yet. If any non-Indians came through, it was probably French-Canadian fur trappers or French-Canadian Jesuits. Below are some photos from the area
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| From a sign near the ancient white pines. |
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| 280 year-old white pine; 150 feet tall. |
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