Mystery of the bent trees

Via dailymail.co.uk by Hannah Parry

The mystery of the strange bent trees dotted around the Unites States has baffled experts for decades.

But now, one researcher is investigating the theory that the unusual trees are not a natural phenomena but a secret marker for Native Americans finding their way through the forests.

Dennis Downes heard stories growing up about the native tribes who once dwelled around Lake Michigan. More than a century ago, tribes would use hidden trails to find safe passage through the forests and across the water, Atlas Obscura reports.

'Having the knowledge of these trail trees could mean the difference between life and death, between eating and starving, between crossing the river correctly or incorrectly,' he explained.

The Native Americans would cultivate young trees, bending them into shape to mark the path, Downes claims.

And while the tribes may have long since vanished from the woods, the trees remain as markers to forgotten paths, from a largely forgotten way of life.


Downes' investigation into marker trees began with the work of Raymond E. Janssen, a geologist who was working in Illinois in the 1930s and 1940s.

'The casual observer views them merely as deformed freaks; but careful observation and comparison of the nature of the deformities indicate that these trees did not acquire their strange shapes simply by accident,' wrote Janssen, who traveled to 13 states to find evidence of tree markers, in one of his many articles on the subject.

Don Wells, whose Mountain Stewards began finding marker trees in Georgia around 2003, said that tribal elders have confirmed the practice used to be routine among Native Americans.

'There are still skeptics out there, mostly in the academic community,' he said. 'I've talked to enough elders, that I know what the truth is. I just ignore them.'

The Texas Historic Tree Coalition has received reports of around 450 potential marker trees in the state during the past twenty years, although only 155 merited further investigation and less than a dozen received official recognition.

But sadly, that number is dwindling thanks to people cutting down the forests to make way for the interstate and growing towns and cities.

Those that escape the chop are still vulnerable to age and the elements.

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