An enormous white oak, Quercus alba, stands at the entrance to McMinnville and has long served as a local landmark. About 85 feet tall, with a crown spread of 125 feet and a possible age of more than 250 years, it has several lower limbs larger than many trees. Its renown comes less from its size than from local folklore and its role in travel through the region. Settlers from North Carolina, Kentucky, and Virginia passed through Knoxville on the Old Kentucky Trail, where roads converged at Rock Island, the closest city at that time, and then continued south to Alabama beneath this giant tree’s spreading branches. The oak became a well-known meeting place where weary travelers sometimes waited long periods for fellow settlers, better weather, or supplies. It was entered on the Tennessee Landmark and Historic Tree Register in 2000 as a Landmark Tree.