JEROMESVILLE, OHIO — Sparse leaves on outstretched branches provide scant shade for the tall grass below. Sunlight beams down through sporadic patches of green like a kaleidoscope.

About 50 feet away, a tributary to the Jerome Fork of the Mohican River slowly winds through farmland, separating the tree from adjacent fields of crops. Birdsong provides nature’s background music.

Large, bulbous burls covering scars of trauma adorn the trunk of this wilderness sentinel. The gnarled trunk of this massive American sycamore, which is at least two centuries old, measures 436 inches in circumference, and the tree stands 88 feet tall. A portion of the trunk is hollow — a cavity measuring more than 8 feet tall.

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