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Oak Forest Historical Places and Oak Forest Historical Sites and Oak Forest History

The Mother Oak Tree of Oak Forest

The Mother Oak Tree of Oak Forest May 9, 2015 at 9:01pm Back sometime between 1910 and 1920, the story of the "Mother Oak Tree" started up in Oak Forest. This tree was said to be the original Oak Tree in Oak Forest from which all other oak trees in Oak Forest came. It started with the students of the Farmer's School, who traveled through the woods (now St Mihiel Reservation Forest Preserve) from the Arbor Park Estates area (South of 159th, West of Cicero) to the Farmer's Schoolhouse at 167th and Central. Legend has it the tree was located at approximately 162nd street, between the old Midlothian creek and the Rock Island tracks.

So does such a tree exist ?? First lets go back and see what the area looked like in 1938 so we have an idea of where to look. In the first photo notice that 163rd street was a thru street between Cicero and Central back in 1938. Looking up a block to 162nd street shows not much forest between the Rock Island tracks and Midlothian Creek, so our tree must be near the old Midlothian Creek.

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Looking closely at the old Midlothian Creek area we see that it is a winding creek in 1938 and most of the trees on the track side of the creek are held within the curves of the creek:

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Also note that with the creation of the Midlothian Resovoir at Twin Lakes, the Midlothian Creek now has a straighter path to the east of the old Midlothian Creek, So on todays map, our area of interest is in the black circle as there were very few trees west of that area in 1938:

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We followed the red path in the photo above and low and behold what did we find ? A tree much larger than those around it at the top of an incline overlooking a low winding valley area that looked like the old Midlothian Creek:

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In addition, all the trees to the west toward the tracks were smaller much younger trees while all those going down the incline to the east were larger older oak trees. This matches the aerial photographs from 1938. Lets see, the wind blows from west to east so there is a tendency for new trees to come up down wind and acorns roll down hill, and this tree is at the top of the incline with more oaks growing between it and the old Midlothian Creek. Looking down the incline toward old Midlothian Creek:

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Looking back up the incline across the old Midlothian Creek back up at the Mother Oak Tree (just right of center).

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A couple other pictures worth showing, First the current Midlothian Creek east of the Mother Oak Tree:

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And a recently fallen old Oak in the area, Count the rings to see how old this one is :

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So there you have it : The "Mother Oak Tree" of Oak Forest.

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