Site for court sessions at various times from 1846 to 1870. Capital sentences called for by the courts were carried out immediately, by means of a rope and a convenient limb.

Hangings not called for by regular courts occurred here during the 1857 "cart war"--a series of attacks made by Texas freighters against Mexican drivers along the Indianola - Goliad - San Antonio Road. About 70 men were killed, some of them on this tree, before the war was halted by Texas Rangers.