The Moose Tree

(From 7/13/06 on my old blog)

My parents were the orginal owners of a house in Lombard, Illinois that was built in 1965 when I was 8 years old. One of the interesting legacies that we left behind there was a certain tree in the backyard. Below is a picture of it from sometime in the 70's. We used to call it the moose tree because of its peculiar twin "antlers".

I had an uncle who lived in northern Wisconsin who brought this tree to us on one of his visits to Lombard. We planted it back there and it thrived. The top of the tree had a central stalk along with several surrounding stalks. Some kid broke off the central one and this would affect the tree for the rest of its life. My father had the idea to leave only two of the growing stalks because of another such tree he saw somewhere else in Lombard. His idea was to have the two stalks grow straight upward but the tree didn't quite cooperate.

I wonder if this tree is still there and how tall it might be today about 30 years later?