Century Tree - Where Aggie Stories Begin

Photo: Ed Schipul, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)

A stop on Texas A&M Campus Walk, a free self-guided tour.

You have come full circle to one of the oldest living things on campus. This live oak was probably planted around 1891 or near the turn of the twentieth century; historians still debate the date. Aggies long called it the Century Oak, and the Aggieland yearbook staff gave it its present name in 1990. In 2011 it was recognized as a Famous Tree of Texas.

Look at how its heavy limbs bend down until some rest on the ground. That low canopy gave rise to campus legend. It is said that a couple who walk beneath the tree together will marry, and that a proposal made under its branches will last forever. The legend also warns that anyone who walks under it alone will stay single, so some students carefully walk around it. Hundreds of proposals are made here each year.

The university takes the tree's future seriously: more than 40 clones have been rooted as possible replacements. Sully's statue is only steps away, where you began. Thank you for walking Aggieland.

Getting here: Return to the center of campus by bus or on foot, then walk north past Rudder Tower to Academic Plaza; the sprawling live oak stands beside the plaza near where you began.

Did you know?: One low limb is known as the Friendship Branch: walking under it with someone is said to seal a lifelong friendship.

Photo op: Step under the edge of the canopy and shoot outward through the drooping branches toward the plaza.

More on Wikipedia: Campus of Texas A&M University · Quercus virginiana

Century Tree - Where Aggie Stories Begin

Stops on this tour