Trail Trees - Native American trail blazing system

[DougBates]

Has anybody seen in New England these old bent trees used by Native Americans to mark trails?

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wi...ies/trail-trees-living-native-american-legacy

 

[kerry13]

Interesting article. I ran across this one a few years ago. Thought it was strange and unlike most ice storm or other storm related deformities I have come across. I'll have to keep an eye out now. Thanks again

 

[Tom Rankin]

I don't know if I buy this.

1) 'The bend tells you the direction to go'. Ok, how do you get back?
2) The Native Americans left this area a LONG time ago. Are these trees really that old?

 

[kerry13]

I just took a look at the Trail Tree map linked to in the article and the picture I posted appears to fit nicely into the latitude and longitude ranges noted. Surprising since there appears to only be one such tree noted in NH.

I had the same initial impression as TR but still find the theory to be intriguing especially when you see the abundance of them in certain regions on the map. I have run across a lot of deformed trees in my hikes but nothing as dramatic. The tree in my photo could be 200 years old, perhaps older. Fire had ravaged this area around 200 years ago. The area had been settled for some time by the time of the fires. So who knows. Will have to revisit and take a closer look.

 

[Stan]

I found it fascinating, too, but not so incredible. Explorers and trappers adapted ways of Native Americans, and vise versa, when necessary or advantageous and such trail markings may have well been used beyond the last of the Mohegans. A different "old Indian trick" taught me by a wise old Cree was for fire starting: chips from an artificial fire log!

 

[Ed'n Lauky]

I've often wondered about this tree. It's located on the AT in NC just beyond the NC/GA border.

 

[erugs]

I don't know if I buy this.

1) 'The bend tells you the direction to go'. Ok, how do you get back?
2) The Native Americans left this area a LONG time ago. Are these trees really that old?

My thoughts, especially on #2.

 

[DougBates]

Many of the trail trees in Georgia have been dated to the period before the expulsion of the Cherokee. It seems likely that almost all of the trail trees in New England would have been logged by now.

 

[erugs]

I was thinking about this overnight. With of our oldest trees, the really tall old ones, we would be looking higher up in the branches for signs. But trees don't grow that way. Some don't know that if you carved initials in the tree when it was young and short, those initials would be about at the same height even as the tree is old and dies.

 

[Ed'n Lauky]

I just came up with this article: http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwo...quest-find-and-save-indian-trail-trees-149169

 

[Ed'n Lauky]

Inspired by this thread and after doing quite a bit of research on the net we headed out today in search of trail trees. It's not that easy because while there are a lot of photos of the trees on the net there is almost no indication of where they can be found. But...we had some success. Found this tree in Oconee State Park in SC. The park is located in the extreme northwest corner of SC near the area where NC, GA and SC touch. I talked to the park ranger about the tree. He said that many feel that it is a genuine trail tree, but he couldn't say for sure if it is old enough. He also said that while the Cherokee definitely bent saplings he wasn't sure it was for marking trails. He said many times they bent them to get straight vertical shafts for their arrows.