I can’t imagine now going on a trip without a GPS… and that’s because I/we allow technology to take over our lives. No wonder they have recently connected the brain to the Internet…Maps can also be a very useful guide, but what happened before we had maps or GPS? How did people discover the right direction in the forest before technology arrived? It seems there are secrets hidden in nature and it has something to do with crooked trees.
As stated on the American Forests national website:All over the United States, you can find trees that have strange shapes. Their trunks have strange twists or bend at strange angles. While some of them may be simple quirks of nature, most of these trees are actually landmarks that helped guide indigenous people on their path. Native Americans bent saplings to create permanent trail markers, designating safe paths through rugged terrain and pointing travelers to water, food, or other important landmarks. Over the years, the trees have grown, maintaining their original form, but with their purpose almost forgotten as modern life sprung up around them. Today, we may not need these “trail trees” for navigation, but their place in history makes them invaluable. Imagine the stories these trees could tell.
Yes…we know there are many bent and oddly shaped trees created by Mother Nature, but there are few things that the Native Americans did that split them, and the lost wanderers were able to recognize the man-made ones from the ones that were made by Mother Nature.For example, many trees we see in the forest can bend naturally, like the one shown in the image above. But decades and decades ago the trees bent by Native Americans had a noticeable nose, or a notch that stuck out at the end of the bend (as seen below). This was created by inserting a piece of the tree into a hole and allowing the tree to grow around it.
Besides the nose, there is another small detail that can help you distinguish the wonders of nature and the curved man-made trees. If you look at the top of the inner bed, you can also see the scars from where the straps were placed when the trees were young.Many of these trees are between 150 and 200 years old, but as we know, there are many things we do as people that massively destroy nature. One of them is population growth, and probably in the near future these trees will be “timbered”…That’s why the Mountain Stewards website was created.
The site mapped over 1,000 crooked trees across the country and documented exactly where they were!
Hopefully, young and old will rush to see these incredible pieces of American history before they are gone!
Check out a real-life bent tree in Georgia in the video below! This is fascinating…
Image Source: Eddie Lanham/Historical Exploration/Brooks, GA)