Steele's Tavern Oak

Fort Worth's official mail arrived, from 1856, at the spot where this live oak grows. Steele's Inn and Tavern stood here, it handled the town's official mail service, and it was the end of the line for the stagecoach between Fort Worth and Jacksboro. That made it a waystation on a very long road. Passengers from the southern and eastern states stopped at the inn to rest before riding on to Jacksboro, where they could join the Butterfield Overland Stage, the route that carried them across the Southwest and on into California. The inn is long gone and the oak remains, which is why the city's heritage register lists it. What the register does not say is how old the tree is, or whether it was already standing when the coaches pulled up. It would be easy to claim it watched them; nobody has shown that it did. If you know when it was planted, or have measured its trunk, tell us. The Pioneers Rest ash is about a kilometre away and the Traders Oak another kilometre beyond it, so the three make a single morning's walk on the north side of downtown.