Estimated to be 300 years old, and partially dead, the Holly Tree at Indian Steps has been celebrated for more than a century.
Identified as a “Penn Charter Tree”, a tree alive at the time William Penn became Proprietor of Pennsylvania, the Holly was also proclaimed the largest Holly tree north of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Sometime after 1939 and before 1955, the Conservation Society of York County featured this great tree in a commemorative postcard.
Not mailed, the postcard notes the Pennsylvania Power and Water Company as the owners of the Indian Steps Museum where the tree is located.
Pennsylvania Power and Water became part of PP&L in 1955, but had given the Indian Steps Museum to the Conservation Society of York County some time earlier.
(I have been unable to find a date for the acquisition of the Indian Steps site by CSYC.)
Recent health report for the Holly Tree show that parts are still living, although some portions of the tree require physical support.
