The Cross Timbers

Calling them timbers undersells how hard they were to cross. The Handbook of Texas describes the Eastern Cross Timbers as a narrow band of blackjack and post oak, never wider than about fifteen miles, running south from Cooke County. Pioneers found them both a landmark and an obstacle, because the growth was so dense. Comanches raided east of the belt in the early years, the Wichitas and others used its wood, and Indian travelers used it as a north-south road that hid them from enemies. Its sandy soil feeds artesian wells to the east.

What the plaque says

The Cross Timbers Two long, narrow strips of timber extending parallel to each other from Oklahoma to Central Texas; form a marked contrast to adjacent prairie. The more fertile East Cross Timbers begin here in Cooke County. Area was famous pioneer landmark as well as obstacle to travel because of its dense growth. It divided the hunting grounds of the Plains and East Texas Indians. Until 1870s it marked boundary of settlement, for Plains Indians avoided the timber. Forests' most important function was (and is) causing soil to retain water. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Great Hanging Memorial — 6.0 mi
  Two granite monuments in a Gainesville park, dedicated in 2014, for the Cooke County men the Confederate militia hanged in October 1862 on suspicion of Unionism.
• Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge — 18 mi
  A 1946 refuge on the Big Mineral Arm of Lake Texoma, laid over land bought for Denison Dam and the site of the vanished railroad town of Hagerman, now a winter stop for geese.
• Eisenhower State Park — 28 mi
  A bluff-top park on Lake Texoma opened in 1958 on land leased from the Corps of Engineers, in the Red River country of Fort Johnson, Colbert's Ferry and the Butterfield stages.

More markers nearby

• Gainesville — steps away
• Gainesville State School — 3.5 mi
• Callisburg United Methodist Church — 3.7 mi
• First Oil Well in Cooke County — 3.8 mi