The Hanging Tree
Goliad, Goliad County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Site for court sessions at various times from 1846 to 1870. Capital sentences called for by the courts were carried out immediately, by means of a rope and a convenient limb. Hangings not called for by regular courts occurred here during the 1857 "cart war"--a series of attacks made by Texas freighters against Mexican drivers along the Indianola - Goliad - San Antonio Road. About 70 men were killed, some of them on this tree, before the war was halted by Texas Rangers. (1964)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
For decades in the mid-1800s, this Goliad tree served as an open-air courthouse where sentences were carried out on the spot with rope and a handy limb. Its darkest chapter came during the 1857 "Cart War," when Texas freighters violently attacked Mexican teamsters hauling goods along the road between the coast and San Antonio, a spasm of ethnic and economic violence that killed dozens before the Texas Rangers intervened.
Why it matters
It is a stark reminder that frontier "justice" often meant summary violence, and that commercial rivalry on Texas roads could turn deadly along ethnic lines.
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Related events
- · Cart War of 1857
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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