Old Baldy

Historical Period: Spanish Missions (1716-1821)

Species: Baldcypress (Taxodium distichum)

Public Access: Yes, Old Baldy can be found in McKinney Falls State Park,northeast of the main parking area.

On May 22, 1716, as noted in the diary of Father Isidro Félix de Espinosa of Querétaro, Mexico, a Spanish Franciscan expedition camped on the banks of Onion Creek within “three shots of a harquebus”—a distance of less than one-half mile—from its confluence with Williamson Creek. May in Texas is the height of thunderstorm season, and it can already be sweltering hot, making the shelter of trees a welcome respite. The 1716 expedition was the second Espinosa had taken along the same route. In 1709, accompanied by another Franciscan and fifteen soldiers, Espinosa marched from Mexico to the site of what would become San Antonio. Impressed by the availability of water and the prospects for Spanish settlement, the padres pressed on toward the Colorado River where they hoped to make contact with the Tejas Indians and establish a mission.

El Camino Real, the “King’s Highway” through Central Texas, saw a lot of traffic in the early eighteenth century. Spanish Franciscan missionary expeditions had reached East Texas in 1690. At least six other missions were established within two decades of that first mission, and several were relocated. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people and animals were required to establish and move these missions.

Three hundred years later, Old Baldy, a towering bald cypress tree that was alive and available for refuge to those thousands of people, still stands sentry along Onion Creek in what is now McKinney Falls State Park. A granite outcropping near the confluence of the creeks shows faint swales and ancient hoof marks that indicate the frequent passage of large expeditions that moved past, or under, Old Baldy.