Before It Was New Jersey's Biggest Black Walnut, the Tree on West Saddle River Road Was a Property Line

A black walnut stands at the northeast corner of West Saddle River Road and Lower Cross Road. Its recorded trunk diameter is 74 inches. On Friday, September 25, a NorthJersey.com photographer photographed it as cars and a truck went past. Three days later, NorthJersey.com reported that the state Department of Environmental Protection and Forest Service had renewed the tree's Champion Tree certificate. It remains the largest known black walnut in New Jersey.

The certificate is the newest record this tree has. Saddle River's own planning records had already marked it out, for a reason older than any measuring tape. In the borough's land records, the walnut was a boundary line.

What the state measured on September 11

The New Jersey Forest Service's Big Tree Conservation Program dates to the 1930s. It re-measures its trees every 10 years to track growth and condition. Before this fall, this walnut was last measured in August 2016.

The Forest Service puts the tree at about 333 years old, which means it took root around 1693. NorthJersey.com notes that 1693 was the year Newark was organized as an independent township. The same report says West Saddle River Road was then an Indigenous north-south trail along the western side of the Saddle River.

Champion status works by points. According to the NJDEP Big and Heritage Trees page, the program uses the American Forests three-point formula:

1. Trunk circumference in inches, measured 4½ feet off the ground
2. Plus height in feet
3. Plus one-quarter of the average crown spread in feet

The published article doesn't print a point total. Running the September figures through the formula gives our own estimate: 233 inches of circumference plus 110 feet of height plus 24 for the crown, or about 367 points. Forrest Jennings, a forestry assistant with the DEP's Big Tree Conservation Program, told NorthJersey.com what the title means:

"It is the largest among 20 of its size and species known within the state of New Jersey."

The borough wrote it down first

Saddle River adopted its Master Plan on September 13, 2010. The plan's historic-resource inventory lists landmark candidates by address and block and lot. Entry 52 is not a building. It reads "Black Walnut Tree in front of Hopper-Victor Tenant House," at 42 W. Saddle River Road, and the house itself is dated 1840 to 1861.

The note beside the entry explains why a tree belongs on a list of houses and barns. The 2010 Master Plan says the tree "showed up on early land deeds as a property boundary and is the oldest in this area."

The entry just before it uses the same logic. Entry 51 is Indian Rock at 16 Twinbrooks Road. The plan describes a 1702 deed between Indigenous people and European settlers that conveyed 1,200 acres along the eastern side of the Saddle River, and says the rock marked the southernmost point of those lands. So two consecutive lines in the borough's inventory record natural features that once served as survey markers. They come from a time when a boulder or a large tree was the most permanent thing a deed could point to. Nearly a decade and a half before the latest state certificate, the Master Plan had already recorded the walnut's role.

The tree stands on private property, and both the owner and the borough received certificates of recognition this fall. You can see it from the public road, and that is the only way to see it.

A road lined with the same kind of record

The walnut's neighbors on West Saddle River Road appear in the borough's Master Plan inventory too, and most of them also appear in the New Jersey Historic Preservation Office's Bergen County register inventory, which was last updated October 1, 2026. The tree itself appears only in the borough's inventory. Driving north from the corner of Lower Cross Road, you pass:

The Master Plan describes the Bull's Head as a drovers' tavern that later served as an early local hotel. The Saddle River Center Historic District, which takes in parts of East Allendale and West Saddle River Roads, joined the State Register on June 13, 1986, and the National Register on August 29, 1986.

The dates give the walnut its context. The two oldest houses in the table date to around the 1740s, roughly half a century after the tree's estimated rooting date. The walnut was already a full-grown landmark when those stone houses went up beside the old trail. These are private homes, and the road is the vantage point here too.

Who keeps the record now

On a list like the table above, the date of local designation matters as much as state or national listing. The Saddle River Landmarks Commission identifies and documents historic resources. It also decides local Certificates of Appropriateness and advises the Planning and Zoning Boards on applications referred to it. The borough points out that local designation is separate from State or National Register listing, and that a property appearing in the 2010 Master Plan inventory is not designated for that reason alone. The current adopted designation list and map are available from the Commission Secretary.

The Commission's 2026 record shows what that work looks like. At its March 9 meeting, it granted a Certificate of Appropriateness to restore the landmarked Carlock House at 2 Chestnut Ridge Road. The minutes note that the barn on that property was not locally landmarked, so it fell outside the Commission's jurisdiction. At the same meeting, members asked for volunteers to prepare historical descriptions and photographs for a June 14, 2026, 250th-anniversary event that included trolley tours of historic landmarks.

The walnut ties these threads together. Councilman Jon Kurpis, who chairs the Landmarks Commission, was among the borough officials who marked the state designation, along with Mayor Albert Kurpis, Council President Christopher DiGirolamo and Councilman Ravi Sachdev. Mayor Kurpis put it this way in NorthJersey.com's coverage: "We prioritize historical preservation, an appreciation of local history, and environmental stewardship as central tenets of Saddle River's governance."

How the walnut compares with Bergen County's other giants

NJDEP's GIS layer of champion and heritage trees shows other Bergen County champions of different species. Two of them, the oaks, score higher than our estimated 367 points for the Saddle River walnut:

• Northern red oak, Wyckoff: 24 feet 1 inch around, 105 feet tall, 421.5 points
• Black oak, Berdan Grove Park, Fair Lawn: 22 feet 4 inches around, 110 feet tall, 409.625 points, and the one on this list in a public park
• Southern catalpa, Paramus: 17 feet 1 inch around, 90 feet tall, 313.75 points
• Black cherry, Emerson: 16 feet 2 inches around, 69 feet tall, 284.25 points

That layer was last updated January 7, 2026, and is now marked deprecated. It has no Saddle River entry. It lists the county's champion black walnut at a Waldwick address, at 19 feet around, 110 feet tall and 362.25 points. The map was published before the September 2026 recertification, so the state's online map currently trails the certificate.

Some Saddle River lots have an old tree with a documented story of its own. The program's heritage tree track covers trees like these, separate from the size rankings. A heritage tree needs a unique, easily identifiable name, a detailed factual historic narrative and supporting documents, all reviewed by the New Jersey Forest Service Big Tree Coordinator. It cannot be an invasive species, dead or dying, or a hazard, and the owner signs a Right of Access agreement. The DEP page also explains how to measure circumference at 4½ feet and estimate height with a Biltmore stick or clinometer.

At Christian Di Stasio Group, we believe the history recorded on a Saddle River property, from a 1740s stone house to a boundary walnut named in an early deed, is part of its value. If your property has a landmark designation, a register listing or a tree with a story, we'd be glad to help you document it and present it well when the time comes. Schedule a white‑glove consultation.