133 yards east to site of Historic Cottonwood

The road past this tree served Fort Elliott, and the Handbook of Texas notes who manned that post. A company of the Black Tenth Cavalry joined the garrison in 1879, and companies of the Twenty-fourth Infantry and Ninth Cavalry followed; from November 1881 to February 1884 every soldier at the fort was Black, under White officers except Lt. Henry O. Flipper, the first Black graduate of West Point. After 1883 a company of forty Indian scouts was stationed there, and patrols kept Panhandle cattle off reservation land.

What the plaque says

A landmark for pioneers on military and stage road nearby, 1870-1890. Over a century old, tree measures 21 feet around. (1969)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Marvin — steps away
  A small 1930s conservation lake on Boggy Creek east of Canadian, named for the Panhandle congressman whose name is on the 1937 law that turned the plains' ruined farms back to grass.
• Gene Howe Wildlife Management Area — 6.5 mi
  Five thousand acres of sand sage and cottonwood bottomland along the Canadian River east of Canadian, bought by the state in 1950 for wildlife research and open to walkers with a permit.
• Canadian River Wagon Bridge — 11 mi
  The longest pin-connected bridge in Texas, 3,255 feet of Parker trusses across the Canadian River at Canadian, built for wagons in 1916 and reopened as a footpath in 2000.
• The Citadelle Art Museum — 12 mi
  A 1910 Baptist church saved from demolition in 1977, made into a family home filled with art, and given to Canadian in 2009 as one of the Panhandle's few art museums.

More markers nearby

• Old Military Road — steps away
• Gene Howe Wildlife Management Area — 6.5 mi
• Site of Lyman's Wagon Train Batttle — 6.8 mi
• Anvil Park Ranch — 7.9 mi