The Bur Oak Savanna of Union Ridge Cemetery

The oldest oak in this grove has been estimated at 325 to 375 years, which would make it roughly two centuries older than the city around it. It was already a mature prairie tree when Chicago was a portage and a fort. The figure comes from Scott Carlini, quoted in a 2016 hunt for the city's oldest tree, and it is based on trunk diameter rather than a ring core, so treat it as directional. We found no second independent estimate, which is why this entry stays flagged. What is solid is the setting. Union Ridge took its first burial in 1841 and is described by the Norwood Park Historical Society as the oldest continuously operating cemetery in Chicago. The ground was open prairie before it was platted, and what stands here is a genuine relict bur oak savanna: widely spaced, heavy limbed trees with daylight between them, which is what oaks look like when they grow up in grassland rather than in forest. Bur oak's thick corky bark let it survive the fires that kept that prairie open, and the graves that arrived in 1841 put an end to both the fires and the plough. It is a working cemetery, so come during posted visiting hours and behave like a guest. The pin is the entrance; the old section and its oaks are inside the grounds.