The Treaty Oak is a 500-year-old live oak tree in a small park on Baylor Street, near the western edge of downtown. According to local legend — almost certainly apocryphal — Stephen F. Austin signed a boundary treaty with local tribes under this tree in the early days of Texas. What is certain is that the tree is genuinely ancient and genuinely impressive: a massive canopy spreading 127 feet, its lower limbs nearly touching the ground.
The tree survived a poisoning attempt in 1989 that killed most of its canopy, but the surviving portion has regrown into a substantial tree that remains one of the oldest living things in Austin. The small park around it is free to visit and provides an unexpectedly quiet refuge a few blocks from the bustle of West 6th Street.