Indian Trail Marker Trees

Possible trail marker tree along Shoal Creek and MoPac

 

[This is a work in progress and will be updated over time as needed]

Before the advent of major roads and street signs (I-35 North, next left to Waco, rest stop ahead, Exit 294A for gas and food) trees were often used for marking trails and important locations along trails. The term “trail blazing” comes from the practice of deliberately creating visible marks, a tree blaze, on a tree's bark to mark a path or location. Here in Texas the Spanish blazed trees with a cross to mark their caminos and its “parajes” (camping spots). Though rare, some of these old tree blazes still exist on El Camino Real de los Tejas. Native Americans too are thought to have utilized culturally modified trees to mark trails and important locations such as river fords, springs and other important resources, good camp sites.

Members of the Texas Historic Tree Coalition (THTC), based out of Dallas, made several trips to northwest Austin including Camp Mabry in 2014 to evaluate several trees as possible marker trees. Included in the coalition were the authors of Comanche Marker Trees of Texas. The authors, Steve Houser, Linda Pelon, and Jimmy W. Arterberry, formed a collaborative team for their book with expertise in arboriculture, anthropology and Comanche history, respectively. Jimmy Arterberry was at the time the Comanche Nation’s Tribal Historic Preservation Officer.

Their book outlines ways the Comanche modified or otherwise utilized trees, but here we’ll focus on “bent trees” thought to have been used to indicate direction of travel, or mark a location on a trail. Bent trees are common in many states, though they vary in appearance. The Mountain Stewards is an organization that maps "Indian trail trees" in the Appalachian Mountains. Here in Texas, A&M's database of famous trees includes the "Indian Marker Tree", a Texas live oak in Burnet, Texas. From their website "At the better camping spots along a trail, a sapling-size tree was bent [by the Comanche] to the ground and tied down to serve as a marker. As the tree grew, it maintained this prostrate or horizontal position."

Some are skeptical of marker trees. Bent and otherwise oddly shaped trees can result from natural causes. But there is no doubt Native Americans, having been in the Americas for at least 14,000 years, did culturally modify and otherwise use trees. Besides the well documented use of wood for living structures, leather preparation, arrow shafts, travois etc., we also have archeological and historical evidence of the Comanche, Utes, and other Native American tribes culturally modifying trees. Fort Davis was established at a place the U.S. Army called "Painted Comanche Camp," so named because of pictographs painted on cottonwood trees. 

The question then becomes, if they did culturally modify trees, are any left? When we encounter a strangely bent tree, how does one determine if it is the result of nature versus having been culturally modified by Nation Americans? The short answer is generally we can’t know with absolute certainty, so groups like THTC use criteria to determine if the tree could have been culturally modified. Let’s review some of what THTC looks at.

To start with, the tree has to be old enough. THTC uses techniques that do not harm a tree to evaluate the age; no tree cores. The tree will be native to Texas (not introduced by European settlement later) and of a type Native Americans are known to have utilized. Can one rule out obvious natural explanations that might account for the bent tree? A common one is an exposed root ball indicating the tree might have fallen over. Is there indication the bent tree could be a result of phototropism, the tendency for all plants to bend towards light as is common in tree motts. Is there evidence of scarring on the bark that might suggest the tree was bent as a sapling? Is there geographic / historic / archeological / ethnographic evidence or context – like a trail system -- for Native Americans having been at the site of the tree. This is the most subjective and difficult criterion to determine and typically involves some serious research.

The process is complicated, but this is the type of analysis done by THTC for all the trees they record as candidate marker trees.

If you are interested in seeing a good candidate for a bent marker tree there is one west of MoPac, along Shoal Creek, on the property of Signature Science, 8329 N Mopac. The tree can be viewed from their parking lot, but this is private property so please act accordingly; no tree climbing! This is the location of the old O’Neill riding stable I wrote about in another blog (see below).

Photos

 

Photo illustrates use of live trees in Ute tipi construction. From USDA, "Archaeological Heritage of Colorado's Ute Tribe Part of National Forests' History in Rocky Mountain Region".

One of several trees at Camp Mabry THTC examined

Steve Houser with THTC prepares to ascend a tree in a northwest hills neighborhood for closer inspection as team members stand by. Another tree with same shape pointing in same direction is located several hundred feet away.

Example of blazed tree created by Spanish near Mission San Miguel, San Luis Obispo County, California. El Camino Real, the Royal Highway, connected the California missions. At the beginning it was a trail, and a cross carved into the bark of trees showed the right path. This was such a tree, and the cross was lost until the day the tree fell (near Paso Robles), and the cross was found on the inside. Similar crosses have been found on El Camino Real de los Tejas here in Texas.

References, Read More (no particular order)

 

Steve Houser, Linda Pelon, Jimmy W. Arterberry. Comanche Marker Trees of Texas. Texas A&M University Press, 2016.

Mountain Stewards. See Indian Trail Tree Project. Accessed 06-14-2023  https://mountainstewards.org/

Texas A&M, Famous Trees of Texas, “Indian Marker Tree”. The tree was located in Burnet, Texas. It has unfortunately died. https://tfsweb.tamu.edu/websites/FamousTreesOfTexas/TreeLayout.aspx?pageid=16045

Elaine Jordan. Indian Trail Trees. Jordan Ink Publishing, 1997 (first edition). Focus on trees in Georgia. A bit less "scholarly".

 

Richard Denney. "O’Neill Riding Stable, R.A. McElroy and Riley Boy, Texas’ Most Beautiful Horse." https://traviscountyhistorical.blogspot.com/2022/02/oneill-riding-stable-ra-mcelroy-and.html

Dennis Downes, Indian trail marker tree researcher. Has collaborated with THTC's Steve Houser. Website is a good source of videos, pointer to his book. Accessed 06-14-2023. http://www.downesstudio.net

 

Kawa, Nicholas C., et al. “Trail Trees: Living Artifacts (Vivifacts) of Eastern North America.” Ethnobiology Letters, vol. 6, no. 1, 2015, pp. 183–88. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26423616. Accessed 15 June 2023. 

 

Mobley, Charles M., and Morley Eldridge. “Culturally Modified Trees in the Pacific Northwest.” Arctic Anthropology, vol. 29, no. 2, 1992, pp. 91–110. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40316316. Accessed 15 June 2023.

 

There is a lot written about culturally modified trees in general, but here's one study from 2017 on the Utes. Utes are linguistically and geographically related to the Shoshone, and Comanches were once part of the Shoshone. The Comanche entered recorded history in 1706 when residents of Taos Pueblo, New Mexico sent word to the Spanish governor in Santa Fe that they were expecting an attack from Ute Indians and their new allies, the Comanche (Hamalainen, Comanche Empire, p.20). There is also indication they had attended the Taos trade fair earlier in 1700, again with the Utes (Noye, Los Comanches, p.3). Elizabeth Dresser-Kluchman. "Scarred Ponderosas, Rock Art, and other Traces of Ute History: New Evidence from the Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument." Presented at The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Vancouver, British Columbia. 2017 ( tDAR id: 430711). 

 

National Park Service, "Culturally Modified Tree Study", accessed 06-14-2023. https://www.nps.gov/glac/learn/historyculture/culturally-modified-trees.htm