First Tree Texas High Plains
Panhandle, Carson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Set front dugout home by Thomas Cree, 1888. Good luck symbol of settlers through drouth, blizzard and heat. Cree's bois d'arc tree died in the 1970s. County residents planted a new tree here in 1990 as a memorial to the area's early pioneers.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On the treeless expanse of the Texas Panhandle, a single bois d'arc planted by settler Thomas Cree at his dugout home in 1888 became a landmark and a good-luck talisman for pioneers enduring drought, blizzards, and blistering heat. Cree's original tree lived until the 1970s, and in 1990 Carson County residents planted a successor on the spot to honor the region's earliest homesteaders.
Why it matters
It memorializes the sheer harshness of settling the High Plains, where something as ordinary as a shade tree became a beacon of hope and endurance.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Thomas Cree
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Thomas Cree Homesite
Panhandle, TX
After serving as a Civil War teamster and later working for the Union Pacific Railroad, Thomas B. Cree brought his wife to the treeless High Plains in 1888, where they carved a dugout home from the earth. At his wife's longing for a tree, Cree rode 35 miles to find a sapling and watered it from a lake he dug out of a buffalo wallow; though it never grew, it survived blizzards and drought for years. In 1963 Governor John Connally dedicated a marker to what was remembered as the first tree in the Panhandle.
33rd Anniversary National Convention
Carson County, TX
On the treeless High Plains of the Texas Panhandle, the survival of a single planted tree was no small thing. This marker recalls Thomas Cree, an early settler celebrated for nurturing a young tree in a country where wind, drought, and grass fires killed most seedlings. In 1965 the Men's Garden Clubs of America, meeting in Amarillo, paused their national convention to honor his small green act of faith in the land.
Oldest Bank in the Texas Panhandle
Panhandle, TX
Founded by James Christopher Paul—a pupil of Sam Houston's son, the lawyer Temple Houston—this was the second commercial bank in the Texas Panhandle and the oldest in continuous service. Among its first depositors were the early ranchers and homesteaders of the High Plains. During the great oil boom, Judge Paul opened a second bank in 1927, the First National, and the two merged on the last day of 1942; many accounts still pass down through the heirs of those first settlers.
Texas Panhandle Pioneers - John F. Weatherlys Family
Panhandle, TX
John F. Weatherly and his family were among the first landowners on the wide-open Texas Panhandle, starting a ranch in 1898 and running the country store, post office, and telephone exchange for their neighbors. The 1924 discovery of oil on their land helped spark the founding of Borger, and the family gave freely—donating ground for churches, schools, and a park. His wife, Maggie Marie Deahl Weatherly, later built Weatherly Hall at Texas Christian University.