The Famous Trees of Texas book said the Turner Oak was about 200 yards from the main entrance of the Greenwood Cemetery, which turned out to be quite obvious. Before I could get there, however, I stopped when I spotted two big live oaks on the corner of the grounds in a strip of earth near a parking lot and an interesting church-like building.

This was my first time to locate one on my own.

I later noticed that, when I'm searching for a specific tree, there is sometimes another nearby tree that throws me off at first. I've begun calling these: decoys.

Jumping out of my car to take photos of these lovely decoys, I soon discovered that Greenwood Cemetery is filled with large, old live oaks that look like they were planted in somewhat of an imperfect grid pattern amongst the tombstones.

Still not realizing that I came in the "wrong" entrance, I wandered a while on foot sweltering in the 97 degree September heat, trying to discern if one or the other tree was larger, or how many yards from the entrance this particular one might be.

Is it this one?
Hmmm… maybe this one??

Clearly, my sense of distance is vague. I had no idea if there would be a marker of some kind? or if the right tree was even alive??

I walked out toward one old tree that had a faux bois like cement trash can at the trunk base, made to look like a tree stump. Viewing this from my vehicle, I thought might be a marker of some kind.

Nope.

It reminded me of some of the tombstones I saw in Colorado City (where my grandparents are all buried) that were shaped like pine and cedar trunks.

After appreciating some other specimens, I got back in my car and drove slowly around the little roads of the cemetery, taking in the interesting monuments and trying to note trees with possible significance.

I felt pretty stupid…

when I finally spotted the huge circular median that surrounds the well marked Turner Oak, especially when I saw the triumphant four horse equestrian sculpture that clearly delineates the main entrance nearby.

Ok, yeah, that's probably about 200 yards.

One of the first settlers in Tarrant County, Charles Turner, for whom the oak is named, was a founder of the city of Fort Worth. According to the Famous Trees of Texas, he wisely buried a stash of gold under this tree, to avoid exchanging it for Confederate notes, as per the directive when Texas seceded from the union.

I wonder how much different this tree looked 168 years ago, when he settled on this land. It must have been large enough to serve as an unmistakable landmark, because he eventually came back, dug up the gold and used it to "restore prosperity to the town he helped found."

When I told my sister about visiting, she jokingly asked if I had scratched around at all to see if any gold was left. Dang.

As I understand it, is no longer recommended to pour cement into the wounds of trees, so I was surprised to see that the trunk of this historic tree had a sizable weathered chunk in an older branch scar, which likely happened decades ago. I also wondered if blanketing the median with water-loving St.Augustine turf was a great idea, not to mention the strips of summer annuals a few feet away from the trunk. Most of the other big trees were thriving without much supplemental water.

In the Famous Trees of Texas book photo, (first image on this post) you can see a number of cemetery headstones in the background, as well as a distinct figurine sculpture holding up her hands (in sorrow? worship? ecstasy? I don't know. Her clothing is falling off and a jug of money is dumping out at her feet, so there is a lot going on).

When searching around the live oak decoys, I looked for this identifier, wondering if it was still here and was pleased to see that it remains in good condition, expressively marking the Wallenberg gravesite. On one side of the pedestal, I recognized the opening lines of Psalm 121, one of a few my mother pressured my sister and I to memorize as children…

It was not at all pleasant to be outside this very hot day, so I went back to the car to make an attempt at drawing, using a style I learned in my first art class in high school.

Contour drawings are an exercise in looking and seeing. Done with one continuous line, your eyes stay constantly on the subject, not looking at your paper. There is plenty of opportunity for them to come out looking like a drunken scrawl, which is pretty much what happened. The point of the technique is to force yourself to keep your eyes on your subject, not your drawing.

Even just an outline of an extremely complicated subject, such as a live oak would take quite a bit more patience than I had that sweltering afternoon. I gave up and went to find the Traders Oak.

This was my first official tree from the Famous Trees of Texas book.

If you really want to know how I got started, (I know you do) the Presbyterian Oaks were my first attempt at hunting and writing about trees.