Papa’s Sitting Tree

My brother sent me this link about a group of people using GPS coordinates and digital camera uploads map out and investigate whether such “Trail Trees” might actually be relics of Native American navigational systems. The mappers have noticed that in many cases the trees form a route, often following ridge lines, and often paralleling trails such as the modern-day Appalachian Trail. According to the post, the theory is that “American Indians would take a sapling, usually a white oak, and cut off the primary stem just above one of the branches so that the branch would become the new trunk.” The trees are being mapped out over at the Trail Tree Blog and you can see more pictures at this site.

We used to have one of these along a trail in the woods behind the house where we grew up. The trail lead up through a gap along a creek between two ridges and then merged into another trail that followed the ridges on. My grandfather used to always stop with us when we hiked that old trail to point out the trail tree formation which we named Papa’s Sitting Tree. It was a great place to stop and rest and the tree provided a perfect seat. We are hoping to go back and hike the trail again this summer so we might find Papa’s Sitting Tree, mark its GPS coordinates, and add it to the trail tree database. Should be fun!