desert dweller
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Power to the Peaceful...Hate does not create.
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Post by desert dweller on Dec 8, 2015 13:46:07 GMT -8
I've seen a couple of tress with these types of characteristics in what was once Indian country. But, there is no way I could be sure they were used for marking trails. MNN.com > Earth Matters > Wilderness & Resources Trail trees are a living Native American legacy These ancient navigational tools still exist, but they can be tough to find. By: Laura Moss December 8, 2015, 11:22 a.mIf you’ve ever encountered a bent tree while hiking in North American woods, you may have simply happened upon a tree that was bowed by weather, disease or other natural causes. However, you might have stumbled upon an ancient trail marker created by Native Americans hundreds of years ago.link
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walkswithblackflies
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Resident terrorist-supporting eco-freak bootlicker
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Post by walkswithblackflies on Dec 8, 2015 13:59:52 GMT -8
Very cool. Unfortunately, most of the indian paths in my neck of the woods are now roads. But I'll have to remember this while hiking in the Adks.
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Post by Coolkat on Dec 8, 2015 17:12:20 GMT -8
I guess I can't speak with authority since I'm not a biologist nor a tree expert by any means but it would seem to me that most of these trail trees should gone long ago. I guess don't know how a long ago this practice was abandoned due to Indians being forced into reservations but it's been 115 years since 1900.
Maybe someone can educate me on this but in my neck of the woods the only trees that I know of that last long some maples, oaks, beech, and white pines. I suppose I might be missing one or two.
However, after saying all of that I'm thinking I've seen this before but can't remember where. I just assumed that it was from another tree falling on it.
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mk
Trail Wise!
North Texas
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Post by mk on Dec 8, 2015 18:05:23 GMT -8
linkWe saw this tie-down tree in Big Bend National Park. Legend says that is was created by Comanches, or other Indians, to point the way to something.
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Post by Lamebeaver on Dec 8, 2015 18:19:38 GMT -8
Interesting. If one did that now, they'd probably get a lecture on vandalism and environmental sensitivity from a ranger.
I wonder if gang signs spray painted on sandstone will be revered several hundred years from now as archaeological sites.
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johnnyray
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Argle-Bargle, Jiggery-Pokery, and Applesauce
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Post by johnnyray on Dec 8, 2015 18:22:50 GMT -8
I've seen trees like that in the OP but can't remember where. I also wonder about the age, could be someone copying trees they had seen.
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Post by starwalker on Dec 9, 2015 20:06:53 GMT -8
I have one in my backyard that points to our spring where we get our water.
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amaruq
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Call me Little Spoon
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Post by amaruq on Dec 10, 2015 7:18:51 GMT -8
That's awfully neat. I've seen a few like these on my hikes, but never really gave them a second thought beyond "huh, neat."
Reminds me, in a way, of the windswept conifers found in Ontario's Georgian Bay and Muskoka regions. Permanently deformed and shaped by consistent trade winds.
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walkswithblackflies
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Resident terrorist-supporting eco-freak bootlicker
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Post by walkswithblackflies on Dec 10, 2015 9:47:48 GMT -8
the only trees that I know of that last long some maples, oaks, beech, and white pines At my local State Park, there are 400+ year old maples, beech, birch, tuliptrees, hemlock, and cedar.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2015 13:29:38 GMT -8
There's very few trees old enough in the southern Appalachians to be trail trees. Most of the southern Appalachians trees were cut and the mountains bare naked by 1920. It's remarkable to me how the mountains have recovered over the past ninety years or so but still, with the clear cutting, and then the Great Chestnut Blight, the forest today is vastly different from the forest of yesteryear.
Often I think about what it must have looked like 200 years ago.
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talus
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Post by talus on Dec 13, 2015 16:26:40 GMT -8
I snapped this today by the Allegheny River. This tree couldn't be more than 50 years old, but it certainly looks to have been staked.
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