DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just here to pass it along. Now, before there were highways cutting through the Texas Panhandle, before towns had names and fences had lines, a man named Thadium B. Cree — went by Thomas — made his way out to the High Plains.
He hadn't exactly lived a quiet life getting there. He'd served as a teamster in the Civil War, hauling and working through those years from 1861 to 1865. After that, he put in time with the Union Pacific Railroad.
A man who knew what it meant to move things, to keep things going. Then came 1888. He and his wife arrived on the High Plains of the Texas Panhandle.
They acquired this land right here, and they took stock of what they had. What they did not have was trees. No lumber.
No timber. No shade. So they did what you do — they built a dugout home and got on with living.
But here's where the story turns. At his wife's request, Thomas Cree traveled thirty-five miles to find a sapling. Thirty-five miles, out and back, for one small tree.
He brought it home and planted it right here on this land. And because there was no water just waiting around to oblige him, he dug a lake from a nearby buffalo wallow to water it. Now, the tree never grew.
I want you to sit with that for a second. The man hauled it thirty-five miles, hand-dug a watering source out of a buffalo wallow, and the tree never grew. But — and this is the part worth remembering — it lived.
It lived many years, through blizzard, through heat, through drought, stubbornly refusing to do much but exist out there on the open Panhandle. In 1963, Governor John Connally came out and dedicated a historical marker to it. The first tree in the Panhandle.
Not the tallest. Not the prettiest. Didn't even grow.
But it was first, and it lasted, and somebody loved it enough to carry it thirty-five miles home. Sometimes that's the whole story right there.
What the marker says
After serving as a teamster in the Civil War (1861-65), Thadium (Thomas) B. Cree worked for the Union Pacific Railroad. In 1888 he and his wife came to the High Plains. They acquired this land and, with no trees for lumber, they built a dugout home. Cree traveled 35 miles at his wife's request to find a sapling and planted it here. He watered it from a nearby lake that he dug from a buffalo wallow. The tree never grew but lived many years despite blizzard, heat, and drought. Gov. John Connally dedicated an historical marker in 1963 to the first tree in the Panhandle. (1980)