The Man Who Poisoned Austin's 500-Year-Old Treaty Oak

On Texas Independence Day in 1989, Austin's city forester noticed a ring of dead grass around the city's most famous tree.

Soil tests found Velpar, an herbicide made to kill hardwood trees.

Someone had poisoned the Treaty Oak on purpose.

The live oak is believed to be more than 500 years old, and it still stands in a small park on Baylor Street just west of downtown.

What happened next pulled in national news crews, psychics, monks, a billionaire's checkbook and a jury.

The Most Perfect Tree in America

Long before 1989, the Treaty Oak was a celebrity.

In 1927 it was admitted to the American Forestry Association's Hall of Fame for Trees and declared the most perfect specimen of a North American tree.

Legend calls it the last of the Council Oaks, a grove where Stephen F. Austin is said to have signed a boundary agreement with Native tribes.

Historians say there is no proof of that, and the Handbook of Texas says so plainly.

The tree nearly fell to development instead. In 1926 the Caldwell family offered the land for $7,000 because they could no longer afford the taxes.

The city finally bought it in 1937 for $1,000, and the oak got its own park.

A Ring of Dead Grass

City forester John Giedraitis first thought a parks worker had been careless with weed killer.

Then the tree itself started to look sick, so he had the soil tested.

The lab found Velpar. The city didn't use it, so Giedraitis filed a police report.

Austin police Sgt. John Jones got the case. He later told KUT it was handed to him "as kind of a joke."

Nobody was laughing for long. The story went national, and Barbara Walters asked on Good Morning America, "Who would want to murder a tree?"

Chicken Soup, Crystals and a Limo Full of Witches

Austin did what Austin does. It showed up.

Giedraitis told KUT that thousands of people visited in the first months, leaving get-well cards, cans of chicken soup, Maalox and candles.

So many crystals were buried around the roots that he compared it to a crystal factory.

A group of the Dalai Lama's monks who were on tour came by to chant. Psychics, church groups, a Native American group and, in Giedraitis's words, "a limo full of witches" from Dallas all paid visits.

A Bureaucrat With a Blank Check

Workers dug out the poisoned soil, but the herbicide was already inside the tree.

Then H. Ross Perot called and offered to pay for the rescue. Giedraitis later described himself as "a bureaucrat with a blank check."

Crews put up giant misters and shade structures. They injected the tree with salt to flush out the poison, then with sugar water to give it energy.

It kept dying anyway. According to KUT, more than $100,000 went into trying to save it.

The Wire, the Love Spell and Nine Years

DuPont, the company that makes Velpar, put up a $10,000 reward.

A woman called police saying she knew who did it, and she agreed to wear a wire. On the tape, a farmworker named Paul Stedman Cullen said he poisoned the tree.

At trial, she testified that Cullen did it as a ritual to get over his feelings for another woman.

The judge, Bob Perkins, told KUT the magic motive always seemed far-fetched. On the recordings, he said, Cullen talked about paying Texas back for his time in prison.

The jury convicted Cullen of felony criminal mischief, and he was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Cullen denied poisoning the tree for the rest of his life.

Gavels, Pens and a Tree That Would Not Die

Eventually the dead limbs had to come off, and the city asked artists and woodworkers to make something from the wood.

KUT reports that one woodworker made 600 Treaty Oak pens, and gavels were sold to local lawyers and judges.

Giedraitis says the keepsakes raised close to $250,000.

The twist is that the tree survived. The Handbook of Texas says only about a quarter of it was saved, while KUT puts the surviving share at about a third.

Either way, what was left has been growing back for more than three decades. Giedraitis also grew cuttings from the oak so its offspring could live on.

How to Visit the Treaty Oak Today

The Treaty Oak stands in Caldwell Treaty Oak Park on Baylor Street, between Fifth and Sixth streets.

It is a small, free city park, so you can walk right up to it.

The poisoning made the Treaty Oak more famous than ever, and it is still one of the oldest living things in Austin.

Have you ever stood under the Treaty Oak? Tell us in the comments.