The Champion Shagbark Hickory of Swallow Cliff Woods

The biggest shagbark hickory on Cook County's forest preserve land stands about half a kilometre from the widest crown on our Chicago map. The Forest Preserves of Cook County measured it on 5 August 2024 and ranked it first of its species: a trunk 2.65 metres round, 104 inches, a height of 29.3 metres, 96 feet, and a crown about 19 metres across in both directions. Shagbark hickory takes its name from its bark, which on older trunks comes away in long loose strips. The other hickory on this page, the third-ranked bitternut in Thatcher Woods, is the taller tree at 34 metres but carries only 1.92 metres of trunk. The only other shagbark on our map, in London's Greenwich Park, has no measurement we can set against this one, so for now this is the shagbark with numbers. Swallow Cliff Woods gives it company. About 530 metres away stands the county's second-ranked black walnut, whose crown spreads about 31 metres, and the second-ranked white oak at McClaughrey Springs Woods, 4.76 metres round, is about 590 metres off. Three ranked trees, one short walk. The pin is the register's GPS fix at the trunk. Which trail passes closest, we have not found out. The register is the only source for this hickory and gives no age. Nobody has dated it. If you know how old it is, tell us.