When the hamlet of Rio Frio was laid out in the 1880s, local history says it took its bearings from two landmarks, Schoolhouse Mountain to the east and a live oak to the west. That oak still stands on FM 1120, on private land behind a hedge and fence, and a plaque by the Friends of the Rio Frio Oak marks it. You see it from the road.
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Texas Live Oak (Quercus fusiformis) · Rio Frio
When Rio Frio was laid out, sometime between 1880 and 1890, the village took its bearings from two landmarks: Schoolhouse Mountain to the east and this live oak to the west. That is the account retold by local history writers rather than a survey anyone has quoted. Backroads of Texas adds that the schoolhouse and part of the settlement were built in its shade.
Some travel sites go further and call it the third largest live oak in Texas, behind the Goose Island Oak and the Columbus Oak. Nobody has published a measurement to back that up, so it stays a claim, repeated rather than proven. The same gap runs through everything else: no age, girth or height has been recorded for it anywhere. If you know any of them, tell us.
It is still alive. Texas Escapes described it in 2001 and again in 2006, and a photograph dated 3 July 2024 shows it standing.
This is a tree to look at from the road, not to walk up to. It grows on private land behind a hedge and a fence posted with no-trespassing signs, and a good view of the trunk is hard to get. You see it from FM 1120 on the east side of the Rio Frio, about seven miles south of Leakey, where a plaque put up by the Friends of the Rio Frio Oak stands by the tree. Stay on the road; the land is not open.