The Dueling Oak

Between 1834 and 1844 there were stretches when scarcely a day passed without a duel being fought under these trees. Creole New Orleans settled its arguments here with swords and pistols, over insults, politics, cards and women, and the oaks were the address everyone understood without being told. There were two. A hurricane took one in 1949 and the other is still standing, roughly three hundred years old, twenty one metres tall on a trunk seven and a half metres round. What makes it worth the walk now is the contrast rather than the gore. The tree stands where Dueling Oaks Drive meets Dreyfous Drive, which puts it a few steps from the Besthoff Sculpture Garden and the art museum. So the spot where men shot each other over remarks at dinner is now the quietest corner of the park, full of people looking at bronze. The pin marks the junction rather than the trunk. You will not need it: there is only one oak there with a story attached.