Last night I attended the premiere of the 1 hour documentary Mystery of the Trees which is about so-called “bent”, “thong” or “marker trees” left behind by the Cherokee indians in north Georgia. Young trees were bent horizontal by thongs before being allowed to resume vertical growth and many examples still abound in the area.
I had noticed a horizontal shaped tree in the adjoining woods but assumed it was from natural causes, just like the tulip poplars I have previously posted which also look unusual. Here is an unusual looking tulip poplar.
.And here is the other side of it.
Now a bent tree is not a tree that initially grew at an angle and then turned vertical, like this one.
Nor is it a tree felled in a storm that began growing again, like this one.
But how about my mystery tree which seems so unusual you gotta wonder if man was involved.
The bent trees had significance to the Native Americans who created them, perhaps to mark the location of springs or areas of significance. Here is another shot of my mystery tree.
I watched the documentary with mounting interest but had a question which I posed to one of the producers. I know the woods were harvested about 30 years ago. If this is a marker tree it would have to be very old and my question was whether such trees were avoided during logging operations. The producer said that often the logging crews included Native Americans and they spared the marker trees. I really do not think this tree can be that old but it is intriguing and has heightened my awareness of the land and those who lived before.