The Bur Oak on the Midway

Since I just wrote about the Bur Oaks of Wooded Island, I thought I’d point out another Bur Oak that was a witness to the Columbian Exposition of 1893. You’ve probably noticed it when driving on Ellis and the Midway. It’s very large and one of the contenders for the title of Oldest Tree in Chicago. This is the view looking east (photo by Sam Cholke)

 

 I have a big affection for it because it’s the only thing that the Olmsted sons allowed to break the grid of the Midway when it was redone after the Fair. There’s a 1901 photo of the grid and the hundreds of very recently planted eastern elm trees. The streets and flat panels are a rigid grid.On the far left of the photo is a floof of leaves that is much bigger than the elm saplings—in the right location, basically aligned with Ingleside.

In 1901, the tree starred as THE example of its kind in Henry C. Cowles botany textbook. Cowles was a founder of ecological studies, a long-term professor at the University of Chicago, and the person who first described ecosystem succession by studying the dunes in Indiana.

 

Richard Bumstead, the landscape architect for the university, said it was in the American Indian exhibit during the fair. Everyone else who mentions it follows his lead. But there’s a slight problem with saying what was where on the Midway during the Fair. The maps were made before the Fair opened, but concessions kept showing up, closing down, changing their names, or moving around all across the six months. The worst location for making a buck was here on the western end of the Midway and so the exhibits here were in constant flux.

Very early maps show a large “American Indian Village” and a smaller “American Indian” concession in the area. However, I think the large village didn’t materialize. One theory I’ve heard is that the people who were recruited to be there signed up with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show instead, going where they could make a lot more money and avoid dealing so directly with millions of white Americans. They didn’t have contracts with the Midway concessionaire because of governmental restrictions on what they could be doing off the reservation. It’s fairly clear that the smaller exhibit did open up as “Sitting Bull’s Cabin” where a ticket would allow a look at supposed artifacts from the Little Big Horn and a view of Rain in the Face, who had been at the battle. Photos of the cabin show tree tops behind and outside the exhibit area.

My sense is that the tree was behind the cabin and was actually in the Ostrich Farm, which opened late, too late for many of the maps. There is one map that shows the ostrich farm as next to the cabin and wrapping around behind it. So, I think our Bur Oak spent the fair hanging out with the ostriches. Judging by Cowles' photo, that's it on the right.