WHAT MAKES TEXAS “TEXAS”?
Pecans
by Ann Marie Kennon
T
here is good reason the pecan is the official tree of Texas. While trade records tell us pecans have been exported from the state since before the Civil War, there is also archaeological evidence the tree has been growing in Texas regions since prehistoric times. Today, it is native to more than half of Texas counties, including most of the river valleys, and it is the only commercially grown nut in the state. Plus, its leaves and coverage make it a wonderfully preferred shade tree in the Texas heat.
SOME HISTORY For a long time, the pecan tree was not duly honored for its fruit and con44
tributions because most were cut down to make room for more valuable cotton crops. On the plus side of that razing, pecan wood was handy for making farming tools and wagons. But, by 1904, when the state was in danger of losing them all together, the nut trade made a significant comeback and quickly became one of the leading money crops. That comeback grew to the point that the Texas Legislature declared the pecan the state tree twice; in 1919 and 1927. In the years after, and fortunately for pecan growers, trees did not know they were in a Great Depression and Texas’ annual crops weighed in the tens of millions of pounds. With all that product,
