If you stand at Lookout Point on Harmar Hill and gaze across Marietta in the summer, the town, except for the business district, looks like a forest sweeping upward from the Muskingum River. Except for the steeples of churches, the town has a roof of leaves above the roofs of shingles and slate topped homes.

Sycamores, oaks and sweet gum trees fill the tree strips and backyards of the town. There was a time not that long ago that Marietta had a tree that was so large, it was actually a tourist attraction for the city. The Rathbone Elm was once the largest elm tree in the United States.

The tree was located at the intersection of Muskingum Drive and Rathbone Lane. The tree reportedly was 100 feet tall and shaded a circle that was 147 feet across. The tree, it would seem, was nearly as old as Marietta itself.

The life cycle of the giant elm is somewhat well documented. The Historical Collection of Ohio book series published by Henry Howe around 1900 recounts the story of Lewis J. Putnam. Putnam, who was born in 1808, visited the area as a small boy and saw the elm growing from an old stump. At that time, the tree was around 20 feet tall and four inches in diameter. A normal size tree by any standard. The fact that the tree was destined to become a giant is likely partly due to the ground in which it was growing. The rich bottom land along the Muskingum River was perfect for trees, and anything else to grow in. The Rathbone area, now filled with homes, was once a farm belonging to William Waldo Rathbone. Rathbone moved to Marietta in 1851 and bought the land on which the tree grew. Rathbone grew sweet potato plants on the farm that shipped to farmers and gardeners all over the United States and Canada. Rathbone named his estate Elm Shade after the tree that continued to grow. When he died in 1884 Rathbone’s operation was the largest grower of sweet potatoes in the country, according to a family newsletter published by the Rathbun Family Association. Measurements of the tree were taken around 1900. Two feet off the ground, the tree had a girth of 24 feet. The branches had a spread of 127 feet.

The land that had been a potato farm eventually sold off and became lots for homes. The area became known for its former owner. Today the area is home to Rathbone Road, Rathbone Terrace and Rathbone Lane.

By the 1920s the large tree, now well over 100 years old, was starting to show its age. This was a problem, because Marietta had made it into a tourist attraction. Do a web search for “Rathbone Elm,” and you will find a variety of postcards that people bought to commemorate their visit to the wood giant. The City of Marietta spent a lot of money trying to save the tree, including patching large holes in the trunk with concrete. Metal bracing was installed to try to hold up some of the branches.

The claim that it was the largest elm in the nation did not go unchallenged. Officials in Wethersfield, Conn., felt that their elm was larger and challenged Marietta to prove their claim. Both trees were measured 14 different ways. The outcome? The Rathbone Elm was indeed the largest in the land.

All good things eventually come to an end, and the aging and sickly tree was no match for Dutch Elm Disease when swept across the country in the 1950s, devasting the native hardwoods. The disease was first reported in the U.S. in 1928 when it arrived in a shipment of wood for Ohio’s furniture industry.

On Nov. 5,1959 workers started cutting the large branches from the tree leaving the giant main trunk of the tree in place. By that time, it had a spread of 147 feet, was 100 feet tall and had a circumference of 44 feet.

The Times published a photo in 1963 of the sad tree without any limbs.

Several legends grew larger than the tree itself during the lifespan of the giant. For instance, its age was estimated in 1939 at over 500 years, and a state newspaper reported that George Washington once camped under its branches. Both “facts” were likely false, as was the claim, impossible to prove, that it was the largest elm in the world.

Rathbone is still a lovely and shady neighborhood even if the Rathbone Elm is but a distant memory.