Trail marker trees

[Dubdubbs]

Hey how much can you tell me about native American (and later Pioneers too but originally the native population was known for creating/using them) trail marker trees? I.e. how much does marking and altering them stunt their growth?, Where might this particular one be leading a traveler?, What are the chances there's something/anything in the hollow that runs the length of the horizontal part of the tree (about 6-8 yards) that holds significance?, How do I find out anything about it from its surroundings?, Do the knobs put on it have specific meaning by placement or size or are they more of a feng shui feel that just the locals understood? Plz any knowledge u can kick down is appreciated and ill ad photos asap.
Thanks
-Dub

 

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[robertk]

I don't know the answer to your question, but I do know that a tree old enough to have been used as any kind of marker by native Americans would have to be an old tree. There is a huge oak in a field where I have found many arrowheads, and I have sometimes caught myself thinking that maybe they sat under that very tree to make them -- and then realizing that the makers of the arrowheads I find were dead and gone for many centuries before that tree ever sprouted.

 

[Dubdubbs]

I don't know the answer to your question, but I do know that a tree old enough to have been used as any kind of marker by native Americans would have to be an old tree. There is a huge oak in a field where I have found many arrowheads, and I have sometimes caught myself thinking that maybe they sat under that very tree to make them -- and then realizing that the makers of the arrowheads I find were dead and gone for many centuries before that tree ever sprouted.

Fair and valid point. I'm not under any illusions that the tree I've come across is an original authentic artifact used by any more than the sparse population of the area around it and perhaps a few integrated/acclimated (sorry if those are in anyway offensive terms I'm not sure how else to word it) natives that knew how to create them. However some most certainly altered this tree to grow in a specific direction horizontally for right around twenty feet then turn straight back up for another at least 40 feet the tree stands almost as tall as those around it and they are all old growth in these particular woods so the fascination has me and I'm super intrigued to learn more about them

 

[Gulf Coast Pirate]

Got a picture?

 

[Dubdubbs]

Got a picture?

Not yet. It's probably going to be at least a day maybe even 2 before I make it back out to the home place but I didn't want to forget to post about it when it came to mind if that makes sense lol

 

[CreekSide]

I doubt it’s NA old but people have found old things in trees that have an opening in the trunk. Civil War items have been found in the trunk areas. Maybe take a metal detector to the trunk and see if you get any hits. The only tree I know of that could be old enough would be a Redwood but some Oaks can be old to. Of course the picture would help.
On another note lightning can hit a tree and make it grow crooked and I’m sure some other Mother Nature things can do that to

 

[Blackfoot58]

Be aware, pareidolia isn’t just for rocks. It’s easy to get caught up in history and accidentally let our imaginations run amok. I believe that Native Americans didn’t blaze a lot of trails. They lived there and knew the land. I don’t use a map when I go to town. They didn’t need a lot of indicators either, IMO. Daniel Boone probably marked more trails than any native.

 

[releventchair]

https://www.americanforests.org/article/trail-trees/

 

[LandSeig]

I saw an old tree in Waco Tx that was bent over and tied years ago, they said it was pointing to a trail that led down a bluff to a river crossing.

 

[Lone Star]

Hey how much can you tell me about native American (and later Pioneers too but originally the native population was known for creating/using them) trail marker trees? I.e. how much does marking and altering them stunt their growth?, Where might this particular one be leading a traveler?, What are the chances there's something/anything in the hollow that runs the length of the horizontal part of the tree (about 6-8 yards) that holds significance?, How do I find out anything about it from its surroundings?, Do the knobs put on it have specific meaning by placement or size or are they more of a feng shui feel that just the locals understood? Plz any knowledge u can kick down is appreciated and ill ad photos asap.
Thanks
-Du

Without overthinking this answer, I can't imagine many trees, if any at all, would still be around from the days of prehistoric peoples. There are a few ancient oak trees in and about Texas that are at least 250 years old, but their bark and surface are scared from many seasons of drought and nature's calamities to be story telling.

 

[releventchair]

Without overthinking this answer, I can't imagine many trees, if any at all, would still be around from the days of prehistoric peoples. There are a few ancient oak trees in and about Texas that are at least 250 years old, but their bark and surface are scared from many seasons of drought and nature's calamities to be story telling.

Depends on where.
Post civil war there were natives around in my state still even on ceded land.
Written accounts exist the nearby historical society collected..
My own family members with store / post farther North did business with some.

Till major trails were paved over/on they remained used and obvious.
Signposts including altered trees indicating major trails or other features?
Till destroyed , there were survivors. Core samples used to age some combats the erroneous statement of no trees existing from the seventeen hundreds.

Indian Trail Trees - Appalachian History

In marking a trail, after bending and fastening the young trees, the Indian would usually carve upon them his individual or clan insignia.

www.appalachianhistory.net

A nearly 300-year-old Ferndale tree had to come down, then this happened

Ferndale resident John Fielder will use reclaimed wood to make table for grandfather who built the home where tree was felled.

www.freep.com

The Saugatuck Oak: Michigan’s Oldest Living Oak Tree | Mast Producing Trees

mast-producing-trees.org

 

[Charl]

Don’t know much about trail markers, but there were well worn trails in the Northeast. This map shows villages and major trails in existence already when the English arrived in southern New England. U.S. 1, or the Old Post Road, began as a native trail in Boston area, and todays’s Rt. 1, from Boston to at least as far as New York, basically follows the original trail. At least in this region, it was well managed old growth forest, great spacing, controlled burns by the natives, creating large cleared areas, and good trails. This map shows major known trails in southern New England in 1600’s…Circles are known village locations at that time.

View attachment 2101384

 

[DownEast_Detecting]

Don’t know much about trail markers, but there were well worn trails in the Northeast. This map shows villages and major trails in existence already when the English arrived in southern New England. U.S. 1, or the Old Post Road, began as a native trail in Boston area, and todays’s Rt. 1, from Boston to at least as far as New York, basically follows the original trail.

yes then Benjamin Franklin (as joint deputy postmaster under English rule, then our 1st US post master general after the revolutionary war) used those old trails and made them into roads. like rt. 1 , the post road, or the kings highway which continues through Maine along the coast. He also pioneered the mile marker. Since Franklin devised a way to charge post by the mileage, he needed an accurate way of marking distance. There would be a B followed by a number, so how many miles to Boston. There are even some accounts that state Franklin rode along the Kings highway with his invention the odometer, attached to a wheel of a wagon. And placed a wooden marker post at every mile. Other wagons followed him replacing the wooden ones with carved stone markers some of which have survived to this day.

Sorry for straying off topic a little bit, but history is cool 🤓

 

[MAMucker]

yes then Benjamin Franklin (as joint deputy postmaster under English rule, then our 1st US post master general after the revolutionary war) used those old trails and made them into roads. like rt. 1 , the post road, or the kings highway which continues through Maine along the coast. He also pioneered the mile marker. Since Franklin devised a way to charge post by the mileage, he needed an accurate way of marking distance. There would be a B followed by a number, so how many miles to Boston. There are even some accounts that state Franklin rode along the Kings highway with his invention the odometer, attached to a wheel of a wagon. And placed a wooden marker post at every mile. Other wagons followed him replacing the wooden ones with carved stone markers some of which have survived to this day.
View attachment 2101398

Sorry for straying off topic a little bit, but history is cool 🤓

Nice historic reference!

 

[MAMucker]

Don’t know much about trail markers, but there were well worn trails in the Northeast. This map shows villages and major trails in existence already when the English arrived in southern New England. U.S. 1, or the Old Post Road, began as a native trail in Boston area, and todays’s Rt. 1, from Boston to at least as far as New York, basically follows the original trail. At least in this region, it was well managed old growth forest, great spacing, controlled burns by the natives, creating large cleared areas, and good trails. This map shows major known trails in southern New England in 1600’s…Circles are known village locations at that time.

View attachment 2101384

Very cool map Charl.