Strange Trees

A friend of ours mentioned a "marker tree" she had seen along Red Bridge Road.  Also called thong or trail trees or trail marker trees, they refer to trees that were culturally modified intentionally by Native Americans.  The common interpretation is that they were to mark or point in a direction of a trail or other finding.  There are some who debate about how often or even if they were created by Native Americans.  On the other hand some sources identify tribes in the east and north that are said to have used trees as markers.

This particular tree measured 16" DBH (diameter at breast height).  Using a growth factor to calculate its estimated age it would be at most 80 years old.  Considering that the Osage tribe was moved out of the Ozarks in the 1830s, it couldn't be a marker tree.  Also they were said to be located in a prominent place to be seen at a distance.  This one is growing on a slope steep enough to challenge a mountain goat where I had a hard time even finding it.

Where ever you stand in the debate over the existence of marker trees, it seems unlikely that they were created in the Ozarks.  Proponents say that they marked prominent trade routes and valuable shared resources in dense forest.  The open grasslands and woods created in the Ozarks by regular burning by the Osage and earlier tribes makes the need seem unlikely.  Also, young trees flexible enough to pull down would have to grow for years to become prominent in the landscape while enduring the repeated burning of the forest floor.

A wind or icing event or a dead tree falling over a young tree can produce a "thong tree" with phototropism prompting the tree to reach skyward to find the sunlight.  In spite of this accident of nature, "Life just wants to be," and the tree struggles on to reach for the sun.  You can see a variety of trees that live on in spite of damages by nature in the album of distorted trees at Bull Mills.