Famous Trees of Texas

As my 50th birthday approached in 2020, I decided to start a nerdy, but enjoyable project finding the trees in a book I’ve owned for years, called Famous Trees of Texas. Published in 1970, the year of my birth, this first edition copy is out of print.

Famous Trees of Texas Map (2nd hand ) 1st edition

I love the dated fonts and color quality of the photos in this edition, which I got for $3, as you can barely see penciled in the top right corner. A 3rd edition copy published in March 1984, features a number of updates to the map and the tree list.

A more recent edition was published in 2015 to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of Texas Forest Service (now Texas A&M Forest Service), started in 1915.

The Famous Trees of Texas website includes the descriptions written in the original books and provides species information, historical updates, more recent photos and, importantly, Google coordinates. Small tombstone icons indicate the trees which are no longer living. Because I can access it on the go and leave my aging books on the shelf, this site is a major resource for me.

My first post about Famous Trees of Texas is here. 

This one is kind of a preface.