John Peter Smith Oak

In 1982 Fort Worth's school district called this oak likely the oldest living thing in the whole district, and named it after the man who founded the city's public schools. Today it belongs to an art museum, which laid out its new grounds around it. The land has changed hands more often than the tree. The city's heritage register says it once belonged to the pioneer Major Khleber Van Zandt, whose cottage still stands with its own listed live oak about 600 metres away in Trinity Park. It was donated to the city, became a school site and then held the district's administration building. At the district's centennial the oak was named for John Peter Smith, founder of the public school system and, in the register's words, the father of Fort Worth. The city listed it as a heritage tree in 2009. The Kimbell Art Museum now owns and cares for it. The oak is the centrepiece of the museum's new lawn east of the building, designed for the tree's long-term health, and school groups on tours may eat lunch under it. It is a low, wide tree: 4.5 metres round and 13.7 metres tall, with a crown about 28 metres across, twice its height, and the thickest live oak on this page. The museum calls it centuries old, but no source puts a number on it, and the newest dated report we found is from 2018. If you have seen it lately, or know its age, tell us.