Ever wonder where the world’s greatest treehouse is to be found? Ever wonder who the tenacious soul behind it is? Could you even, in a moment of fantasy, have gotten yourself to fancy the long tree house you made as a kid as being the world’s greatest treehouse?

Well, if you did find yourself fancying your childhood treehouse as the world’s greatest, you may find yourself having to think again after getting to see the treehouse Horrace Burgess has built around Crossville in the United States state of Tennessee.

You start to appreciate the greatness of the treehouse Horrace Burgess has built when the figures are brought in. Standing at 97 feet in height, one agrees that the structure Horrace Burgess has built is the structure to beat, if you want to lay a claim to owning (or even having seen) the greatest treehouse in the world.

The greatness of Horrace Burgess treehouse is not subject to the tree on which it is based alone though. As it turns out, while the tree in question does contribute something to the height of the treehouse, the owner’s efforts also go a long way towards this greatness possible. The tree’s contribution to the 97 foot edifice is only 80 feet, so that the other 17 feet on top of the basic 80 foot are from Horrace’s sheer effort. To be sure, we can’t begrudge the base tree of a claim to greatness too: a tree towering at 80 feet in height and with a diameter of over 12 feet is a real wonder. But it is the structure on top of the tree that is the greater attraction.

The treehouse in question is 11 floor tall, a sky crapper even by some cities’ standards – only that this time, it is built on top of a tree. There are even some other trees grown on the floors of the edifice, of course in addition to the primary tree on which it is based. The 11 floors made from Horrace Burgess tree house create an upwards of 8,000 square feet. To put together this edifice, the guy behind it says that an upwards of a quarter million (250,000+ nails, that is) have been used.

A building of over 11 floors would be expected to have some extra amenities – and the treehouse Horrace has established is no exception. This particular one comes complete with a mini basketball court – if you thought playing you would never live to see guys playing basketball on top of a tree!

The owner of the edifice is a 56 years old landscape architect by the way, and he say an upwards of $12,000 has gone into building the treehouse. Asked about where he got the inspiration to build the edifice, he cites a prayer vision he got in the early 90s – going further to say that he built it ‘for God.’ Nobody is arguing with him – and nobody is contesting the assertion that it is the world’s greatest treehouse either. Meanwhile, building work has not stopped at the 11th floor…the building is still a ‘work in progress!’