A legend in its time, the Treaty Oak is said to be the oldest living thing in Jacksonville Florida, perhaps even a silent witness to the coming of the Spaniards.

Some say it’s really 800 years old.

The tree was then called the “Great Oak” and was smack in the middle of Dixieland amusement park which opened in 1907.   During that time the tree was festooned with electric lights and John Philip Sousa gave concerts under this wonder of nature.

In 1920 the New York Yankees spring training camp was at the old Southside Park in the Dixieland amusement park.

Babe Ruth had just been traded by the Red Sox and was preparing for his first season as a New York Yankee.

During his time playing exhibition baseball here,  Ruth was sidetracked by extracurricular activities, like getting involved with a wrestling match with an alligator and narrowly avoiding an altercation with a knife welding fan.

In the 1930s the name and the history was created by journalist Pat Moran of the Florida Times-Union,  in an attempt to rescue the tree from being destroyed by developers.    He concocted a story claiming a treaty had been signed at the site by indigenous Floridians and early European settlers and called it the Treaty Oak.

At this time the seven acre park was purchased by the Alfred I. DuPont trust, the industrialist known by his family’s Delaware gunpowder manufacturing business.

The park is named for Jesse Ball DuPont, Alfred’s third wife who was a part-time resident of Jacksonville.

The oak shades a roughly circular area of about 190 ft in diameter and it has a trunk over 25 ft in circumference, a height of 70 ft and a crown spread of 145 ft with twisting branches that bow down to the ground and curl up.

The Treaty Oak is along US-1-US-90 in downtown Jacksonville.