Heart O'Texas Oak Tree - Mercury, TX - Historic Trees on Waymarking.com

Lets face it: Texas has an unusual shape. Therefore, determining the point that can claim the title of "the center of Texas" cannot be easy. Three rivers and the Gulf of Mexico shape most of its boundary while West Texas and the panhandle are just weird, long extensions of land. This all said, somehow a formula was derived and used to find a middle point from all its many edges. That central spot that is equidistance from north, south, east and west boundaries ended up along the FM 1028 just two-tenths of a mile from its intersection with FM 502 near Mercury, TX. And guess what! There is a Texas Live Oak growing at or nearest to that midpoint of all the state's boundary lines!

To be fair, this is not the first oak tree to claim being at "the center of Texas." Another tree, formerly known as the Center Oak is now just a dead stump in the small traffic circle on FM 332 near US-84. It held claim when land surveying was done manually with hand-held transits and spotting sticks, aided by measurement chains, etc. Basically this was before satellite GPS systems were invented that can calculate locations within inches very accurately. With the upgrade in technology, the designated center of Texas shifted to a spot on private land, but visible to the public view.

The Heart O'Texas Oak is a mature Texas Live Oak tree growing several yards from a barbed wire fence along a Farm to Market road but easily seen from the roadway. It has a ring of native stones built up into a short ring around the base of the tree. The oak is still a relatively young tree compared to some of the ancient oaks found in Texas. Nonetheless, its is geography, not chronology, that gives this tree its claim to fame.

There is also a large Texas marker along US-377 describing that the actual location is within 5 miles of that marker.

Geographic Center link:
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TX Historical Marker about the geographic center of Texas:
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Testimony of the Heart O'Texas location:
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Website: [Web Link] Historic Event: When a reevaluation of the center of Texas was conducted, the former location near Center, Texas lost its claim to fame because the GPS method of determining the center of the state determined it was in a different location than previously thought. The new location places this Texas Live Oak tree at or nearest the spot that is the center of the state. Year: 1963 Species: Texas Live Oak (Quercus Fusiformis) Approximate Age: 75 Location: Mercury, Texas

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Date Logged Log User Rating   05/19/2019 WayBetterFinder visited it