Several year's ago, due to it's poor health and danger to Pawnee Park visitors, the Skokie Park District's tallest tree was sadly taken down. It was a monster, both in diameter and in height.

That raises the question, which tree is now the tallest on the park district's more than 50 properties?

So we asked Jim Hallm, horticultural and landscape supervisor for the district.

"That question is debatable," he said. "There is a cottonwood on the fence line at Timber Ridge Park that was the champion. But it has been slowly falling apart so I would argue that there are two at Laramie Park or two at Schack Park that are the tallest –– all cottonwoods."

Then we held his feet to the fire and asked Jim to pick one.

"The two adjacent cottonwoods at the northeast end of Laramie Park are what my heart is telling me," he said. "They are big boys."

So we did a little more sleuthing and found a 2D Google Map image from the west end of the park, that shows that the tree to the south of its cottonwood brother (they are located next to each other a few feet inside the east boundary sidewalk) appears to rise a bit higher. Upon visiting both trees, not only does the south tree appear taller, it has a double-trunk and is probably twice the girth. It is huge.

So, although this fact is not etched in stone, we're going to call this beautiful cottonwood tree at Laramie Park, the tallest tree in the Skokie Park District.

If you'd like to check them all out for yourself, click the links to the three parks above and visit all five trees!

Click here to see The Record North Shore's in-depth followup story to this one!