The Crosstimbers Forest starts in southeastern Kansas, stretches across Oklahoma and beyond, into north Texas. I live in Tulsa, in the middle of this ancient forest.
The name comes from Washington Iriving. In 1832, he joined a party of mounted rangers on an expedition to Indian Territory and later wrote about this experience.
I shall not easily forget the mortal toil, and the vexations of flesh and spirit, that we underwent occasionally, in our wanderings through the Cross Timber. It was like struggling through forests of cast iron.
— A Tour on the Prairies, Washington Irving.
He described a prairie bounded by dense, forbidding forests. This dark mosaic of gnarled, blackjack and post oaks hunkered close to the rocky ground. Prickly underbrush snagged all who entered and blocked progress. These forests, these Crosstimbers, stood as a barrier and a boundary between the civilized East and the wild West.
Today, these forests endure, stretching from southeastern Kansas, coiling around Tulsa, and snaking along I-44 to Oklahoma City and beyond. These trees are small in stature, usually less than thirty feet tall, but they are survivors. They can live for centuries. Many of the ones Irving wrote about are still around. They survived droughts and downpours, dust storms and blizzards, fires and farming. They even survived urban intrusions. The forests are mostly oak, but they are diverse. They include hickory, pine, redbud, and hackberry trees. Vines, briars, and sumac tangle about their rough bark.
