Big Tree - Goose Island State Park, Rockport, TX
N 28° 09.143 W 096° 58.600
14R E 698681 N 3115738
The Big Tree in Goose Island State Park, 202 S. Palmetto, Rockport, TX, used to be known as the biggest oak tree in Texas since 1969 until just recently. Even as second biggest, this 1,000 year+ tree has stood all tests of time, nature and man!
Waymark Code: WMZWKR
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 01/14/2019
Views: 6
The coordinates are to the end of the footpath that takes you to the fence surrounding the oak that probably has the largest canopy, most limbs, and one of the largest trunk circumferences you will see in any oak tree.
This is the Big Tree! It has other references as well, like Goose Island Oak, Lamar Oak, or Bishop's Oak. The technical name of this kind of oak is Virginia Live Oak (Quercus Virginiana).
This Big Tree has survived multiple hurricanes, the latest one before this posting was Harvey, which had its landfall at Rockport on 25 August 2017. It has survived the Civil War when Northern ships were shelling the town of Lamar and pretty much destroyed the whole town, except for a few building. At least one wildfire is known to have burned through this area of Texas without significantly damaging this tree. The Park service tries to keep the tree watered during drought and trims damaged branches as needed after storms.
To get to this tree the signage within the park will guide you there. The essential path is to get to the tree is to turn off of SH-35 onto Seaside Loop S. This will change names to 12th Street once you cross Bois D'Arc Street; which in turn, will change names to Park Road 12 once you cross Palmetto Street. The parking area in front of the Big Tree is on the left if you travel as described. The parking lot coordinates are given in the details of this posting. You can see the tree from the parking lot and you can walk to the fence surrounding the tree.
Blog article about the Big Tree:
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visit link)