A celebration is planned in the Central Texas town of New Braunfels for a massive live oak believed to be more than 300 years old.
The sprawling tree named Founder's Oak will be honored Saturday. The Texas Forest Service in June declared the tree with a trunk exceeding 17 feet in circumference a "Famous Tree of Texas."
Gretchen Riley of the Texas Forest Service tells the San Antonio Express-News a tree must have witnessed significant events in Texas frontier history to get the designation.
The Forest Service profile says the tree "has stood sentry to centuries of travelers and settlers to the Guadalupe River region."
In the 1750s, a Spanish mission was located nearby.
The tree, there when the city was established in 1845, has become a beloved landmark.
