Sounding a lot like a dramatization of events, this story claims that Sam Houston and his army fled to the area west of Tomball in north Harris County after the fall of the Alamo in April 1836.

Using the word “supposedly,” it says Houston must have weighed his options for his next tactical move and got his answer from…

You guessed it: the TREE!

Certainly seems embellished, but that’s hardly uncommon among stories from this important chapter of Texas lore. Brushing up on my history, I read the fascinating book Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth, published in 2021 by Texan authors Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, and Jason Stanford. As they articulate, story varnishing is nearly standard practice.

After getting blown away by the astounding Beck’s Prime Oaks in the morning as well as the lucky-to-be-alive Kissing Tree, my kid and I hung a right to view a third specimen on the way back home to Dallas from Houston. Not unlike my Pokemon-Go like quest for trees leaving San Antonio, we were growing weary when we shoe-horned in this visit.

In a quaint, fenced in park filled with beautiful pines and stone picnic tables, nestled over in the corner, this large live oak has numerous lumps on the main trunk where limbs have either fallen or perhaps been cut. I can’t tell if the branches are pointing the directions the story claimed. From the scars, it appears that at one time, it had stems pointing in every direction.

Please tell me someone didn’t chop up this beautiful oak to match this questionable narrative.

Kiddo was happy to play around for a few minutes but quickly got bored, both of us ready to be home. Circling the trunk, I snapped stills and an uninformed short video before we made like a tree…

Which Way Tree stands in New Kentucky Park at 21710 FM2920, Hockley, west of Tomball in north Harris County.

Recommended reading:

'Forget The Alamo' Author Says We Have The Texas Origin Story All Wrong Heard on Fresh Air June 16, 2021

Letters From an American July 7, 2021 by Heather Cox Richardson