Jim Bowie Oak

A tree earns its place in the Live Oak Society by size alone: a trunk at least eight feet around, measured four and a half feet above the ground, with sixteen feet making a Centenarian. Dr. Edwin Lewis Stephens, president of Southwestern Louisiana Institute, founded the society in 1934. The trees themselves are the members, each registered by name, location, girth and sponsor, and the Louisiana Garden Club Federation has kept the records since 1957. In 2013 the register held 7,114 trees from fourteen states, among them this oak on Landry Street.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Le Vieux Village and the Venus House — 0.6 mi
  A heritage park in Opelousas built around the Venus House of about 1791, the home of a free Creole woman of color, Marie Francois Venus, with an old schoolhouse, Methodist church and the visitor center's zydeco music exhibit.
• Prairie Acadian Cultural Center — 21 mi
  A National Park Service center in Eunice on the Cajun prairie, with exhibits on the Acadians who settled the prairies, a Courir de Mardi Gras display, free music and cooking demonstrations, and the shuttered Liberty Theatre nearby.
• Vermilionville — 23 mi
  A living-history village of about 23 acres on Bayou Vermilion in Lafayette, opened in 1990 to interpret the Native peoples, Acadians, Creoles and people of African descent of the Attakapas region.
• Atchafalaya Welcome Center — 25 mi
  A state welcome center inside the Atchafalaya Basin, the nation's largest river swamp, with exhibits on Basin history and life, a film, a crawfishing boat and French-speaking staff.

More markers nearby

• Opelousas (Capital of Confederate Louisiana) — steps away
• Opelousas — steps away
• Delta Theater — steps away
• Manon's Corner — steps away