Can you tell me what these are? Caused by nature or man?

[cdsieg]

I must admit I am a bit of a skeptic when it comes to this stuff, but when I was detecting yesterday I came across these markings on trees. I have no idea what they are or if they mean anything.

I am in Piney Woods Area in Texas. The woods are near Lake Cypress, there is a natural spring near the trees and you can see it where Shadow, my dog is already looking for the treasure!

These are just some of the things I found in this area, I am a skeptic so I expect nothing will come of these things, but just by chance, I thought I'd post it.

If the markings in the trees are man made AND old... what did they use that didn't wash off through out the years? Any thoughts or information you have on this would be appreciated.



Thanks, Cindy

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Cry Of The Eagle: History And Legends Of The Cherokee Indians And Their Buried Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[Shortstack]

Hi Cindy:
Those marks may or mayNOT be some kind of lichen. Hard to tell just from photos. You write that you're in the Piney Woods area; are you near the Big Thicket part? There are some serious outlawry histories in that area. Well, the whole eastern part of Texas because of the really THICK growth of woods gave great hideout areas. There's a book titled, Outlaws in the Big Thicket, by Wanda A. Landrey that might be of interest to you as a place to start some research.
Your dog might just be able to give you some help in zeroing in of "stuff"...........more so than you might think.

 

[cdsieg]

Hi Cindy:
Those marks may or mayNOT be some kind of lichen. Hard to tell just from photos. You write that you're in the Piney Woods area; are you near the Big Thicket part? There are some serious outlawry histories in that area. Well, the whole eastern part of Texas because of the really THICK growth of woods gave great hideout areas. There's a book titled, Outlaws in the Big Thicket, by Wanda A. Landrey that might be of interest to you as a place to start some research.
Your dog might just be able to give you some help in zeroing in of "stuff"...........more so than you might think.

Thank You for responding, I am on about 12 miles of woods, with a handful of houses on the property. I am in Franklin County.
As far as my dog goes, I always wave my coil anywhere my dog decides to dig and or lay and sometimes I let him decide which way to go in the woods!
Here is a link of all the photos I took in that area yesterday. https://picasaweb.google.com/eventphoto620/TreeSigns?authuser=0&feat=directlink

If you have any other thoughts, please do share. Thanks again, Cindy

 

[River Rat]

Hiya Cindy

It's kinda hard to tell, some look like lichen others looks like paint. Is this only on one type of tree? Here in the piney woods of LA, some of the oaks have it and of course the holly trees. Pictures # 5 & 6 are the core of pine tree, all different shapes to em, I just love em & I collect them, they look pretty in flower beds or using for a border. I will notify two TNet folks that may be able to help ID those markings.

RR

 

[DigginThePast]

From the photos and taking into account the environment I'd say its likely a "crustose lichen". Some info can be found at this link where I got the photo below. The moist environment supports the idea of a lichen.

http://www.pathfinderscience.net/so2/cbackground.cfm


If I were to try and convince myself it is man-made I'd have a hard time for a couple reasons. First, if it was man made, and old, there would appear to be "cracking" in the "design" as that would occur naturally as the tree grew in diameter (unless someone went back every so often and updated the markings). Secondly, I really can't make out any symbols/letters/numbers. Maybe others can?

 

[cdsieg]

From the photos and taking into account the environment I'd say its likely a "crustose lichen". Some info can be found at this link where I got the photo below. The moist environment supports the idea of a lichen.

http://www.pathfinderscience.net/so2/cbackground.cfm


If I were to try and convince myself it is man-made I'd have a hard time for a couple reasons. First, if it was man made, and old, there would appear to be "cracking" in the "design" as that would occur naturally as the tree grew in diameter (unless someone went back every so often and updated the markings). Secondly, I really can't make out any symbols/letters/numbers. Maybe others can?

Awesome link, thank you very much, I am much more apt to buy that theory than tree messages. I will keep looking. I do like the way the crustose lichen designed the trees below. Thank you again for taking the time to reply. Cindy

 

[fossis]

From the photos and taking into account the environment I'd say its likely a "crustose lichen". Some info can be found at this link where I got the photo below. The moist environment supports the idea of a lichen.

http://www.pathfinderscience.net/so2/cbackground.cfm


If I were to try and convince myself it is man-made I'd have a hard time for a couple reasons. First, if it was man made, and old, there would appear to be "cracking" in the "design" as that would occur naturally as the tree grew in diameter (unless someone went back every so often and updated the markings). Secondly, I really can't make out any symbols/letters/numbers. Maybe others can?

I would have to agree with Digging the Past, it looks to be Lichen.

Fossis...........

 

[desertmoons]

Hi cindy

On the face of it it looks like lichen. I would file it away as natural unless you see other signs around as the natural shapes of the lichen seem unusual to me too.

I hope you do not mind, me posting your picture from your album..but this...made me blink and could be something. Can you estimate the height of those cut off branches? It makes me wonder..why not just cut down the tree...if those cuts were made high up. ) Good eye on your part. Depending on the height of those cut off limbs...it could turn into an interesting story!

 

[cdsieg]

Hi cindy

On the face of it it looks like lichen. I would file it away as natural unless you see other signs around as the natural shapes of the lichen seem unusual to me too.

I hope you do not mind, me posting your picture from your album..but this...made me blink and could be something. Can you estimate the height of those cut off branches? It makes me wonder..why not just cut down the tree...if those cuts were made high up. ) Good eye on your part. Depending on the height of those cut off limbs...it could turn into an interesting story!

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and observations, no I don't mind you sharing a photo from my album, thank you for looking at it! Could you please tell me if are you referring to the small twig like tree, next to the big tree in that photo? Thanks again, Cindy

 

[desertmoons]

I do mean that skinny tree. Do you notice how the main tree and the skinny tree mimic each other in shape? If those branches are high up, those that have been stripped off, perhaps someone did it on purpose.

For example , to make sure the spring was marked now..and long into the future. If so it denotes a long view of things which is interesting. Have you a native population there?

 

[cdsieg]

I do mean that skinny tree. Do you notice how the main tree and the skinny tree mimic each other in shape? If those branches are high up, those that have been stripped off, perhaps someone did it on purpose.

For example , to make sure the spring was marked now..and long into the future. If so it denotes a long view of things which is interesting. Have you a native population there?

The first photo has some questions on it the second photo is just a really cool tree!
As far as the history:
From what I can figure out the Caddo Indians were in the area, I am in Franklin County, Texas. Here is some history of this area:
Franklin County has a long and narrow north-south configuration. The Cherokee Trace runs along our eastern boundary; a Caddo Indian highway which led from the southern regions of the Caddo Confederacy near Nacogdoches into Oklahoma. Accounts by French traders and travelers in the 1700's report that the highway was wide enough for four horsemen to ride abreast through the thick forest.

Nicholas Trammel traveled this route in 1812 and it is also called Trammel=s Trace. Settlers adapted the road for their own uses. Only a few remnants remain open in the east half of the county.

The Cherokee Indians traveled this highway in the 1820's and 1830's when they were expelled from their native lands in the eastern states. One band of Cherokees settled near Nacogdoches. With Mirabeau B. Lamar's 1839 election as president of the Republic of Texas, they traveled the same route north when the Republic expelled them to Oklahoma. We call this the Cherokee Trace and it is truly a part of the Trail of Tears.

The Choctaw Trail, an East-West Indian Trade Route passes through the county parallel to present U.S. Highway 67. The last Indian Massacre in the eastern half of Texas was on April 10, 1841, just east of Mt. Vernon on the Cherokee Trace.

The Choctaw trail passes through Mt. Vernon as Main Street. West of Mt. Vernon, the trail was known as the Mt. Vernon to Sulphur Springs Road and was incorporated as a part of the Bankhead Highway Route in 1919. The Bankhead Route turned down Holbrook Street and followed the Old Jefferson Road into Mt. Pleasant (north service road of I-30). In the 1930's, the Choctaw Route was abandoned and present US Hwy 67 was opened to the south between Saltillo and Winfield. In the 1930's, this route was first designated as US #1. The Route was also called "The Broadway of America"; this name remained on the Optic-Herald Masthead until 1964 when I-30 opened south of the US 67 route.

Kaufman Street in Mt. Vernon was known in the 1880s as the Mt. Vernon to Winnsboro Road, long before present day Hwy 37 was opened to Winnsboro. And Holbrook Street in the 1880s was known as the Mt. Vernon to Pittsburg Road.

There is speculation that the remnants of the LaSalle party passed through here as they tried to reach French Canada in the late 1600s. Spanish explorers of the 1500s probably came within present day Franklin County, given the meandering Indian trade routes that would have made travel easier for them. The De Soto expedition and later the Moscoso expedition may well have passed through here, and would have been relatively close in any event.

 

[desertmoons]

Well a lot of assuming on my part here....

Assuming the big tree was modified to mark the spring,( that slight bend in the tree), simply put, trees get old and die. Perhaps a Native American came out and cut the branches so that the skinny tree would assume the same shape as it grew over the years. Perhaps the big tree was known to some Native group, and it is their tradition to maintain that spring marker. Yes..through the generations..through hundreds of years.

It is a hidden history you will not read about in history books.

That sort of thing happens, I have seen it out my way. I only speculate that if the big tree is a marker, then we are looking at an example of a very old tradition of maintaining trail markers.

Then again..perhaps someone was collecting wood. Looking around should help determine the answer. Are the cut branches laying around near by? That does not make sense if they were collecting wood...
Is there other wood cutting going on around there? Is it an area where some tree disease is going on and a forester may have pruned for that reason?

The last tree is so cool looking!
Thank you for sharing!

 

[cdsieg]

Well a lot of assuming on my part here....

Assuming the big tree was modified to mark the spring,( that slight bend in the tree), simply put, trees get old and die. Perhaps a Native American came out and cut the branches so that the skinny tree would assume the same shape as it grew over the years. Perhaps the big tree was known to some Native group, and it is their tradition to maintain that spring marker. Yes..through the generations..through hundreds of years.

It is a hidden history you will not read about in history books.

That sort of thing happens, I have seen it out my way. I only speculate that if the big tree is a marker, then we are looking at an example of a very old tradition of maintaining trail markers.

Then again..perhaps someone was collecting wood. Looking around should help determine the answer. Are the cut branches laying around near by? That does not make sense if they were collecting wood...
Is there other wood cutting going on around there? Is it an area where some tree disease is going on and a forester may have pruned for that reason?

The last tree is so cool looking!
Thank you for sharing!

Thank you for sharing that knowledge with me, I am so glad I found this forum, I have learned so much by people like you who take the time to share their knowledge.

I am pretty sure no one would have gone in that area to trim trees, because there isn't even a trail leading to that area. So the is a really interesting concept.

I won't go back down there unless it cools off, the water moccasins might be out and I am snake chicken!!!! It is bad enough with all the ticks, but snakes... no way!

When I do get back down there I have more things that I know I should be looking for. In the meantime I will stay on the trails and my eyes peeled for interesting signs and slithering things!

Thanks Again,
Cindy