A legend in its time. “Treaty Oak” is said to be the oldest living thing in Jacksonville, perhaps even a silent witness to the coming of the Spaniard. Some say it is 800 years old, some say a mere 200. Tales of “treaties” signed under its massive limbs date to the Dixieland amusement park that occupied its near Southside site after the turn of the century, to the fanciful musings of a newspaper reporter following World War II. Jessie Ball duPont saved the big tree from destruction in the early 1960s by buying the land around the tree and donating it for a park that now bears her name.