Well, you've been coming up with some great questions for WBEZ's Curious City Project.

Several listeners have been looking for high points.

Literally, what's the highest point in Chicago?

Well, Elizabeth Silk thought it might be a park on Chicago's north side.

We have a park near us, Warren Park, that has a hill that some people call Mount Warren.

You know, we were just joking about it one day, and I thought,

well, maybe this is the highest point in Chicago. Well, Elizabeth, she's way off, and we had Molly Adams from

Vocalo get an answer. Elizabeth Silk and I established one rule. Any high point in the city would

have to be natural. No structures like the Willis Tower, no hill that's

really a landfill. So how do you find a peak on a prairie? I start with geology and I find

the recipe for our flatness. 14,000 years ago, thereabouts, the city and most of Northwest

Indiana was covered by the ancient Lake Chicago and retreating glaciers.

What we're left with for hills are moraines of glacial debris.

I find topographic maps from the United States Geologic Survey, and I look for the moraine edges that run along what are now blocks in the 90s in Beverly, just north of the Blue

Island Ridge. I identify a few peaks in the area and realize I need a Sherpa. So I call my friend

Maddie Ryan. He grew up in Beverly and is a natural tour guide. You're going to hear the places

we visited in order from lowest to highest.

One stop is at the Dan Ryan Woods

at 87th in Wester

to find a stone marking a lookout point.

Maddie always thought that this was the highest point in Chicago.

There's a hilltop to look down

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