This story is about the Texas legend of "The Which Way Tree".  I'll start with a recap of the story and the significance of this particular tree, and then delve into an examination of whether or not a tree currently touted to be this legendary oak, is actually the original Which Way Tree.

History

In 1836 Texas, Santa Anna had invaded Texas with thousands of Mexican troops, the Alamo had fallen, and the Texian captives at Goliad had been massacred.  The Runaway Scrape was underway, whereby Texan settlers were fleeing for their lives to avoid Santa Anna's murderous wrath.  Several hundred Texans joined together under the leadership of Sam Houston, to fight Santa Anna and to keep their Texas homesteads.

A month later, Houston began a retreat toward Harrisburg (which is now Houston) with his vastly outnumbered army. The Texans were itching for a fight, and they weren't happy that Houston kept moving away from the Mexican army.

	Gen. Sam Houston

On April 16 Houston was heading east with his army, and paused beneath a solitary oak tree in the tiny settlement of New Kentucky.  The tree has been dubbed "the which way tree", because it was located at a fork in the road.  One tree branch pointed northeast to United States territory and safety The other branch pointed southeast toward Harrisburg, where Santa Anna's army was camped.  Houston had to choose a fateful direction: left or right, retreat or fight!

Houston chose the right fork and headed towards Harrisburg. The vast majority of his men chose to follow him to the fight.  Five days later they would face Santa Anna in battle in the swampland of San Jacinto, and win independence for Texas. 

That's the story of the significance of the Which-Way Tree.  Everyone loves to repeat the story, because it's a good one, and features a crucial decision point in Texas history.  If Sam Houston had not headed southeast for Harrisburg that day, Texas might not even exist. 

The background review is now complete, and I'll get on with the point of this particular article.

Examination

That Which Way Tree is now widely regarded to be a particular live oak tree in New Kentucky Park, off of FM 2920 in Tomball.  So, the first stop is a visit to the Park to examine the tree first-hand.  I stopped in to take a look at this special tree, and to measure it. The park is small, only four acres, and contains a small pavilion, picnic tables, and a lot of beautiful big trees, one of which stands out as much larger than all the others, and is the alleged Which Way Tree. It's a live oak, a species which is known for very long lower branches, which often stretch out so far that they can't support their own weight, and droop down and rest on the ground.  This magnificent specimen of a giant live oak is in the far southwest corner of the park.

Park sign		The Which Way Tree?		The author in front of the tree trunk

The question I have about this specific tree is this: Is it old enough to have been on that spot in 1836 when the Texas Army passed by?  Of all the repetitions of the story on the internet, no one seems to ask that one simple question.  So I set out to try and figure it out for myself.  Maybe I would disprove the validity of that particular tree, or maybe I'd confirm it.  But one way or another, the question needed to be asked and examined.

The best way to determine the age of a tree is to take a core sample and count the tree rings - one ring per year.  This is done by forestry professionals with a tool called an increment borer, and using the technique of dendrochronology to count the rings in the bore sample.  I don't have those tools or knowledge, nor permission from the parks commissioner to drill a hole in his fabled tree, so I looked for a simpler way.

It turns out, the age of a tree can be estimated simply by the diameter of the trunk.  Some trees grow faster than others, so forestry professionals have created tables of growth rates by species.  Pine, for example, is a fast-growing species that can grow an inch in diameter every 3 years.  Most trees grow an inch in 4 to 5 years.  The live oak, our specimen, is a slow-grower as far as trunk girth is concerned.  It shoots up quickly in height, but the trunk diameter takes about 6 years on average to grow an inch - twice as slow as pine.

I walked up to the impressive live oak tree, with it's thick, long branches extending out a great distance.  And sure enough, of the two large lower branches, one does point somewhat southeast towards the direction of Harrisburg, and the other sort of northeast towards the direction of Nacogdoches.  That part of the story fits.  I took out my tape measure and wrapped it around the tree about 5 feet above the ground.  It measured 11'11" in circumference, or 143 inches.

In school we learned during geometry class that the circumference (C) of a circle is pi (π) x D, where pi is the constant 3.14 and D is the diameter.  But that's for when the diameter is known, and you want to determine the circumference.  In this case I know the circumference, but need to determine the diameter.  So, switch that formula around to solve for D and it becomes D = C ÷ π.  Plugging in my measured circumference of 143", then we have D = 143 ÷ 3.14, giving a diameter of 45.5 inches.

The next step, given that diameter, is to calculate the estimated age of the tree.  And that's where this handy web site (here) came in with an exact procedure for doing that, specific to live oaks.  It takes into account the fact that trees grow faster earlier in their life, and slow down as they get older.  Growth rate can also be slowed down by drought, or sped up by bountiful rainfall, but over time those factors average out.

So here's the formula, quote: "The first 10 inches in diameter indicate an age of 76 years. Each inch after that adds six-and-a-half years up to age 154. After that, each inch adds six years."  Let's use that formula on this oak tree to determine its age.

Diameter = 45.5"
The first 10" = 76 years.
That leaves 35.5" remaining.diameter 

Age 77 to 154 @ 6.5" / yr
154 years - 76 years = a span of 78 yrs
78 yrs at 6.5 years per inch: 78 ÷ 6.5 = 12" diameter
Total diameter is now 10" + 12" = 22"
Total age is now 76 + 78 = 154 years
This leaves 45.5" total diameter - 22" = 23.5" remaining diameter

6 yrs per inch thereafter
23.5" diameter at 6 years per inch: 23.5 x 6 = 141 years
Total diameter is now 45.5"
Total age is now 154 yrs + 141 yrs = 295 years old!

That's the approximate age of our Which Way Tree in New Kentucky Park!

So, at that age, when did it first spring up from a little acorn?
Current year 2018 - 295 yrs = 1723.

That tree was "born" as a sprout in 1723, just one year after the Spanish built The Alamo as a mission in  San Antonio.  So, it did in fact occupy that very spot during the Texas Revolution.  That answers part of the question, about whether or not the tree even existed at that time.  I am now firmly convinced that it did.  However, there's yet more to consider...

How old was the Which Way Tree during the Texas Revolution?
The Texas Revolution was in 1836, so 1836 - 1723 tree birth date = 113 years old.

The tree was 113 years old in 1836 when the Texian Army passed by on their way to the battle of San Jacinto.

How big would the tree have been in 1836?

We can use the same live oak age estimation formula, backwards, to determine the diameter of the trunk as it existed at age 113 years in 1836.

The first 10" = 76 years.
113 years - 76 years = 37 years remaining
As previously determined, the next 77 years grow at a rate of one inch per 6.5 years
37 yrs at 6.5 years per inch: 37 ÷ 6.5 = 5.7" in diameter
Total age is now 113 years.
Total diameter is 10" + 5.7" = 15.7".

Round it up to 16 inches diameter - that's not really very big for a tree.  That's about the width of the keyboard you're sitting in front of right now.  And it's a long way from the mighty majestic oak that sits there today with a massive girth of 45.5 inches. 

What about the branches?  The lower branches are the thickest in girth, with higher branches getting thinner as they ascend towards the top.  The lower, thickest branches, as you can judge from the picture, are at best one-third of the diameter of the trunk.  Since the trunk was 15.7" in diameter in the year 1836, that means the branches would have been a mere 5" in diameter - about the length of an ink pen.  That's certainly not big enough to have the large, sweeping branches that look like giant arms pointing "which way".

Was this tree big enough to serve as a distinctive landmark for the area in 1836?  Well, that could be a relative thing, which depends upon how many other big things there were to serve as landmarks.  And in this case, the landscape was largely open grassland prairie. But it's proximity to Spring Creek 3,000 feet away means there were likely other trees in the area, which typically line the banks of waterways.  And since photography was only in its infancy, we have no historic photos of the area by which to judge tree density at the time. 

If this tree was the sole tree for miles around, standing proudly all alone, perhaps it could have been a landmark.  On the other hand, if there were many other trees around, it would have been quite indistinct, perhaps dwarfed by other older specimens.

There is also another possibility here. The Which Way tree may have been some other oak that existed at the time, much more mature in age in 1836, which served as the road junction pointer.  And that tree may no longer still be alive. Although live oak trees can live for 1,000 years, there are many hazards which can do them in.  It could have been killed by insects, lightening or hurricane winds, long ago rotted away, and no longer exist.

	The Which Way Tree, from "Sam Houston's Texas"

And that, I think, is the most likely explanation for the Which Way Tree.  In the book "Sam Houston's Texas" by Sue Flanagan, published in 1964, lo and behold, there is a photo of the Which Way Tree on page 39 (right).  And as you can see, this tree bears no resemblance whatsoever to the tree currently in New Kentucky Park which is touted as the Which Way Tree.  The trunk of this tree appears to be even larger, and it seems to be a dead stump.  Since this book was published in 1964, that means this particular photo specimen died more than 50 years ago.  It may have been the true, one and only legendary Which Way Tree, by which the Texans passed at that crucial crossroads, on their way to the fateful battle of San Jacinto which gave birth to the new nation of Texas.

Whatever the truth is, the current tree in New Kentucky Park certainly serves as a fine representative example of what the real Which Way tree must have looked like in 1836, but I am highly skeptical that it is actually "the" original Which Way Tree.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_oak
http://texastreeid.tamu.edu/content/TreeDetails/?id=109
http://www.discovertexasonline.com/2017/04/road-to-revolution-the-which-way-tree/
http://tejas.typepad.com/tweedtexas/2009/06/the-which-way-tree.html
http://www.meanderandgander.com/2013/12/famous-texas-trees.html#WhichWayTree
http://alamostudies.proboards.com/thread/598
http://texasbob.com/travel/tbt_whichway.html
http://texastreeid.tamu.edu/content/TreeDetails/?id=109
https://www.hunker.com/12542585/how-to-age-a-live-oak-tree
https://www.thoughtco.com/estimating-forest-trees-age-1343321

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The author, John Rich JohnRich3 at sbcglobal.net