Texas Trivia (San Antonio, Texarkana, Alamo: utilities, maintenance, organic)

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

OK, Your turn TexasReb

What is the significance of the Treaty Oak, and where is it located?

[Cathy4017]

Once you said that it had a similar name to Orange Blossom Special, I did think of Midnight Special, but like TR, I remember the song as a Johnny Rivers hit. I still had no clue to the meaning, so I couldn't have provided a complete answer!

[joqua]

Originally Posted by TexasReb

What is the significance of the Treaty Oak, and where is it located?

Austin, TX...

According to popular local folklore and the inscription on the plaque at the tree's base, in the 1830s, Stephen F. Austin, the leader of the Austin Colony, met local Native Americans in the grove to negotiate and sign Texas' first boundary treaty after two children and a local judge had been killed in raids. No historical documentation exists to support this event actually taking place. Folklore also holds that Sam Houston rested beneath the Treaty Oak after his expulsion from the Governor's office at the start of Texas' involvement in the American Civil War.

[joqua]

Originally Posted by Cathy4017

Once you said that it had a similar name to Orange Blossom Special, I did think of Midnight Special...

I had been guessing it was:

The Ballad of Casey Jones (http://www.trainweb.org/caseyjones/song.html - broken link)

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by TexasReb

What is the significance of the Treaty Oak, and where is it located?

I know it all too well, so I will let someone else answer this.

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by joqua

I had been guessing it was:

The Ballad of Casey Jones (http://www.trainweb.org/caseyjones/song.html - broken link)

LOL!! It's been a LONG time since I've heard that one!

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by joqua

Austin, TX...

Ohh, I see you did answer it correct. I can verify that it is your turn.

There is more about the Treaty Oak here:

City of Austin - Austin Parks and Recreation Department - Treaty Oak History

[SIZE=2][SIZE=2]The Treaty Oak is a living symbol of history. For five centuries it has survived searing summers, dusty droughts and whistling winds, and has drawn it sustenance from the very depths of Texas soil. It is the last survivor of a grove of fourteen trees known to local Indians as the Council Oaks. The original inhabitants of the area regarded it as a Tree-God. It was a temple of worship for the Comanches and Tonkawa. In the shade of the oak's wide spreading branches, the Native Americans would meet to dance the war dances, smoke the peace pipe, and celebrate feasts and religious ceremonies. Myths and magic surrounded the tree. Tejas Indians believed that a brew from the acorns mixed with wild honey brought back from battle the lovers to maidens who drank the potion.[/SIZE][/SIZE]

I am very familiar with the Treaty Oak. At one point a man tried to poison the tree, parts of it died off and were removed in an effort to save the tree. When we built the New City Hall in Austin. We designed the new City Council dias to include wood trim fashioned from some of those parts of the Treaty Oak. The trim on the dias tops where council members would sit and be most likely to touch it, was fashioned out of Treaty Oak wood in hopes that some of the wisdom and history of that ancient tree would benefit them.

I was happy to see that it is still possible to buy saplings grown from the acorns of Treaty Oak.

- Texas Treaty Live Oak - The Historic Tree Nursery Store!

[joqua]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

Ohh, I see you did answer it correct. I can verify that it is your turn.

Okay. Who is probably one of the most neglected and yet most prolific sculptors of Texas fame? What was his name, where did he come from and where in Texas did he live?

Hint: He was famous in his time and created the following lasting works.

Terry's Texas Ranger equestrian monument at state capitol.
Famous figures on the campus of UT Austin, including George Washington.
Littlefield Fountain - signature sculpture of UT Austin.
The white marble monument to Heroes of the Alamo in front of the Alamo.
Monumental statues of historic Texans at the state fair grounds museum.
And many more monuments scattered around the state - more in San Antonio than anywhere.

[jtur88]

Pompeo Coppini, from Italy. He lived in San Antonio. His protegee, Miss Waldine Tauch, from Schulenberg, is perhaps an even more fascinating Texan.

[jtur88]

Assuming that my answer was correct, here is another one about a sculptor:

Another immigrant sculptor created one large, conspicuous statue in every state in the union and province in Canada. Who was he, where was he from, what is the unifying subject of all of his series of sculptures, and where is the one in Texas?