Hacking away histree

efore Dallas founder John Neely Bryan settled near the Trinity River and skyscrapers sprouted from plains, the Comanche used trees to navigate trails and mark resources.

The natives tied saplings to the ground with animal hide so that they grew in unusual formations. These Indian marker trees once guided the Comanche to water and shelter, but most are lost to American Indians’ disregarded history. Only nine have been documented in 24 years, according to Steve Houser, a White Rock area native, arborist and Texas Historic Tree Coalition member.

“There were a lot more than there are today,” he says.

A bent pecan tree at Lake Highlands Park near Peavy Road matched most of the criteria to be an Indian marker tree, but ultimately wasn’t old enough qualify. The marker trees must be at least 145 years old, and the pecan tree is estimated to be between 85 and 110.

Neighbors were furious nonetheless when 65-year-old Albert Santos hacked it with a chainsaw. Several Eastwood, Lake Park Estates, Lochwood and Old Lake Highlands neighbors confronted him. One even blocked Santos with a pick-up truck until five police cars arrived, Amy Martin told the Advocate in 2017.

Santos told the police that the city authorized him to cut stormdowned trees, even though he had no paperwork to prove it. Neighbors assumed he wanted to sell the pecan wood to meat smokers. “A steady stream of residents came by, each one was angry, enraged, even livid,” Martin wrote. “Many gave the perp a piece of their mind. ... It was stressed that although it was not a confirmed Indian marker tree, it was a landmark tree considered significant by authorities and deeply beloved by residents.”

The pecan tree’s lifespan was shortened because of its injuries. “For the tree that lost half its canopy, it regenerated beautifully,” Martin says. Neighbors transformed the wood pieces into art that they auctioned at the Bath House Cultural Center’s Winter Art Mart to raise money for the Dallas Parks Foundation.

“They kept the tree close to the tree,” Martin says. “I have a chunk of the tree with a gnome home built on top of it. It’s completely adorable, but there it is— a giant hunk of tree in my living room.

The beloved tree near Peavy Road isn’t the only recent hacking victim. Lucan Watkins, of For the Love of the Lake, caught two men severing the limbs of another pecan tree near White Rock Lake at Peavy and East Lake Highlands Drive in August 2016.