This tree is known as “The Big Oak Tree” and its location is in Baytown, TX on Texas Avenue. The oak tree is the official symbol of the city of Baytown. According to tree experts, the tree is somewhere between 300 and 1000 years old. The tree was already ready a landmark by guy named Price Pruett. When engineers decided to build a road to get refinery in 1919, the blueprint drawings required that the tree be cut down because the tree was right at the end of Texas Avenue. Knowing this, Ross Sterling told the engineers to build around the tree, and Price Pruett own the land where the tree was, made agreement with the commissioner and the tree was allowed to stand until it die from natural causes. The tree has been saved many times from being cut and, also, poisoned in 1989. The Pruett family was the largest supporters on keeping the tree from being cut down. Price Pruett also spent money for the road to be widened around the tree.
The tree also serves as a meeting place for the Baytown residents during Christmas. They decorate the tree with hundreds of lights every year. The tree represents the long history of Baytown by its branches. Even though Texas Avenue changed over the years, the oak tree is the only landmark on Texas Avenue that has not changed.
