Half-Way Oak - Stephens County, TX
N 32° 33.796 W 098° 53.588
14S E 510032 N 3602877
The huge, historic Half-Way Oak is a 200+ year Live Oak at the intersection of US-183 and CR 160 in Stephens County, TX. It is in a Rest Area on the east side of US-183, just southeast of CR 160.
Waymark Code: WM13J23
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 12/22/2020
Views: 7
"On April 29, 2011 ... the Texas Forest Service designated the Half-Way Oak as an official Historic Tree and it was listed in the Historic Tree Registry as a living legend and a testament to all of the history which it has witnessed ..."(1) This tree is also listed on page 130 of the 2015 edition of the Texas A&M Forest Service's "Famous Trees of Texas." It has survived centuries of storms, floods, fires, infestations, civilizations, and modernizations. It was almost cut down so that TxDOT could widen US-183! It is beginning to show its age. Several major branches are now proper up by metal pole supports and its central trunk has cracked open, but it still alive and is still a landmark to Stephens County and its surrounding TX counties.
It is named Half-Way Oak because it is at the halfway mark between Breckenridge, TX to its north and Cisco (and Eastland and Ranger) to its south. This tree was used as one of two designated landmarks on a county map from 1858. It is the largest, tallest, and perhaps only tree along the old stagecoach trail that ran between Stephenville and Fort Griffin since the 1867. It was also used by settlers for shade and sanctuary to the many travelers that migrated north or south in this region of Texas later in the 1880 and on. Of course, the local Indians had been used it as a rest area well more centuries before TxDOT even thought to designate it as such.
(1) Link to TxHTC article on Half-Way Oak historic designation:
(
visit link)
Abilene News Reporter article on historic Half-Way Oak:
(
visit link)
Texas A&M Forest Service page on Half-Way Oak from 1970 edition of Famous Trees of Texas:
(
visit link)