Historical Period: Texas Revolution (1835-1836)
Historical Topic: Frontier Settlements, Stephen F. Austin
Species: Eastern Redcedar (Juniperus virginiana)
County: Jasper
Public Access: No longer applicable; tree is dead
In 1835, Ruffin C. Turner received title to a league and a labor of land in the Zavalla colony. On the brow of a small hill in the southwest corner of his land, within a few hundred yards of Indian Springs, Turner built his house under the shade of a giant eastern redcedar.
The Turner Redcedar was at one time the second largest of its species in the United States. Part of the top was blown out in a storm in the 1960s, but the tree regrew a beautifully-shaped second crown. It succumbed to drought in 2011.