Historical Period: European Exploration (1519-1716)
Historical Topic: Frontier Settlements, Folklore & Legends, Native Americans
Species: Texas Live Oak (Quercus fusiformis)
County: Burnet
Public Access: No longer applicable; tree is dead
Historians estimate that before the year 1900 more than 50 Indian tribes, or nations, made Texas their home. The state’s trees provided them medicine, food, shelter, weaponry, utensils, and transportation, not to mention art and inspiration. Native American tribes have long had a close connection with trees, and trees were a valuable natural resource on the Texas Plains.
Indian populations were often migratory, relocating from one territory to another. The Comanche were relative latecomers to Texas, moving in from the southern Rockies and forcing the expulsion or movement of other established tribes, including the Tonkawas and Lipan Apaches—both early inhabitants of what is now Burnet County. Comanches spent their summers
camping in the high plains of Texas and used several well-defined trails running alongside the creeks and rivers intersecting the Colorado River
One way these nomadic people marked their favorite campsites was with marker trees, such as this live oak in Burnet near Hamilton Creek. Also called “trail trees,” or “trail marker trees,” they have been described by experts as “early road maps” for American Indians. These “maps” consisted of young trees bent into unique shapes to visually mark trails and other important landmarks. By creating these markers, tribes were able to permanently signify food, shelter, and water sources. Typically a sapling was bent low to the ground with a strap, thus forcing it into a specific shape that could be recognized as man-made and seen at a distance. Different tribes used different techniques, however, which today make accurate identification as a marker tree somewhat difficult. How many remain is unknown.
In 1852, when the town of Burnet was founded, Indians were still coming to the area, setting up teepees and camping on the site of the Indian Marker Tree. The tree today is surrounded by modern-day encroachments, and signs of it being an Indian marker tree are not evident to the untrained eye.