If you are near the AuSable River area in Mio, the BIG Cedar is an adventure to find.
Jon & I took the advice of our guests and went on an adventure to find the BIG Cedar along the AuSable River, near Mio, MI. Our summer & fall had flown by, so off we went in search of the BIG Cedar on a very windy & COLD December day in 2021.
Loaded with our map and general direction, we set off with our dogs, Dixie & Roxie. The first leg of the journey was easy walking on a two-track trail.
As we neared the river, we ventured off the trail. We hiked back and forth through cedars & evergreens, searching high tree tops, and low trunks, but just couldn’t find it. Defeated and cold, the wind pushed us back down the trail in search of the warm vehicle for our numb fingers & toes. The first hike ended without success. Back home to the warm cabin in the woods.
A couple months later we tried the hike again. On a much more mild February day in 2022, we finally found The BIG Cedar. Yay!!!! We took lots of time admiring the 350+ year old tree, took lots of pictures, and imagined what it had lived through. When guests stay at Trail’s End Guesthouse asking about things to do, we can now say we were there! GPS coordinates provided at the bottom of this page will help the next people find the old tree as it’s actually off the beaten path down on it’s own little peninsula by the river.
"The cedar has become a symbol of greatness, of nobility, of strength and of incorruptibility"
The information below was taken from the 2021 Oscoda County Chamber of Commerce publication:
One of the largest native white cedars on the Michigan mainland
This is one of the largest native white cedars on the Michigan mainland, according to the Big Tree Committee of the Northern Michigan Botanical Society. It has a girth of 153.5 inches and a diameter of 47.5 inches. It has a total height to top of foliage of 43 feet. Sometime in the rather distant past, the ravages of time and weather have removed a large portion of the original crown at a point approximately 29 feet above the ground where the diameter at the point of break measures 26 inches.
Assumed to exceed 350 years!
Efforts to determine the age of this huge tree have met with only limited success; however it can be assumed to exceed 350 years and was therefore only a seedling or a small sapling when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.
The rather isolated location of his specimen on a small semi-island area within a few feet of the AuSable River, has afforded protection from the numerous forest fires that over-ran adjacent lands during the early 1900’s. It is also highly probable that its defective condition caused the early loggers to pass it by in favor of sounder trees.
