A magnificent live oak tree once stood in this vicinity and for many years served as an early landmark on the South Texas plains. Noted for its size and wide canopy, it stood in a large hollow created by livestock gathering beneath its branches and by winds eroding the exposed soil. El Encino del Poso guided early trails and land grants, served as the site of a stagecoach station, and gave Encino, one mile north, its name. The tree died in the 1890s, before Brooks County was formed, after an extended drought.