Old San Antonio Tree Saw Battle of Alamo
San Antonio Light, Friday, April 13, 1928.Like a lone sentinel keeping watch over its post, remembering that the first law of an old soldier is duty, the last cottonwood tree of the original Alamo group is standing, 75 feet tall, in the heart of San Antonio.
With its huge circumference measuring ten feet and its roots occasionally reaching up to disturb a cement sidewalk, the Menger hotel's cottonwood has excited interest from a long file of humanity that comes and goes year by year, its very measurements command respect. Even the greatest man in its shadow is but an ant by comparison.
And why should it not be tall and strong? Its roots were wet by the blood of a battle that gave Texas and the whole Southwest its baptism. From its sturdy ancestors, growing in a crowded grove, the Alamo was named?
And while the world was yet young to this venerable tree, while David Crockett lived and fought and Traves drew the famous line that meant death to those who crossed it, even while each man in the Alamo crossed this line, the cottonwood stood near, its youthful limbs probably seared by Santa Anna's hail of bullets.
For twenty-two years Henry Winckler, house carpenter for the Menger, has watched the old tree grow.
"Its adds a few inches to itself each year," he observed, "and from the looks of it I guess it'll just keep on growing, always."
Mrs. Grace McGowan, manager of the Menger, has had strangers from the farthest corners of the earth inquire about the history and pedigree of "that remarkable tree",as they usually term it, and has been glad that she could tell them: "That's one of the original Alamo group. It was here when the battle was fought, and it looks as though it would be here for a long time in the future.
Ancient pictures recently found in the cellar of the Menger by Mrs. McGowan show the patio of the Menger when an old acequia, the Alamo ditch, ran directly through the hotel grounds. From the waters of this irrigation ditch dug by the Franciscans in the early eighteenth century this cottonwood and others once growing there took their life blood, and traces of the ancient acequia remains at the feet of this old survivor.
Historical records show that, first of all, the Spaniards and their friars called San Antonio's first mission, San Antonio de Valero, "The Alamo" before many years had passed, the reason being a huge grove of cottonwoods growing there. In Spanish,"Cottonwood" is "alamo."
And when the famous battle had been fought and an entire garrison lay dead, it was of these "alamos" that Santa Anna built his funeral pyres. Alternating first a pile of wood and then a row of bodies, the dictator used tallow and kerosene to light this noted fire. It burned for three days.
If trees have memories, what a tale this one could tell!
THE SECOND FLYING COMPANY OF ALAMO DE PARRAS©1996,1997, Randell Tarin. All Rights Reserved.