After Ikeman's post it got me thinking about our "knee" tree so I started checking out what the internet had to offer on the trail marker tree's. This Guy Dennis Downes seemed to have devoted a lot of time and research to the topic over the years and had written some books on it even founding a group that researches them. So I found his link to the Great Lakes Trail Marker Tree Society who I guess are experts on that sort of thing and sent them a pic and some brief info on our tree just to see what they thought.
Within a couple days they emailed me back asking for some more information on our tree along with more specific pics and a measurement, the wife and I went out last weekend and collected the requested info mostly pics and I sent it back to them yesterday.
They replied right away;
"
Stan,
Thank you for getting back to us with additional photos and information. It definitely has the size and characteristics to make it a likely Native American Trail marker Tree.
What a cool tree! It is sad that age and other factors are getting the best of many of these trees. We hope that it continues to stand for years to come.
Dennis is hoping to make it to Ohio within the next year for a lecture, maybe if it is within the area of your tree, would you be willing to show him the tree in person?
Thank you again!
Liz Fox
Downes Studio
Great Lakes Trail Marker Tree Society"
I gave them my contact info and next year we will see what he says. The least this has been is an informative learning process and we may in the end even have a living piece of American history in our woods?
The bad thing is that the back side of the tree is starting to get a hollow spot with age so it's days are definitely numbered. One thing I had never noticed on the tree (because I never really paid close attention to it other than walking by) was that the knob on the knee part kind of looks a little like a face if you look at it like you look at cloud formations.
With my wife right next to the tree it gives a better idea of the size of it.
Also a couple links on the Ft Recovery stuff I cited in my previous post, it's an interesting read on American history and happened twenty miles from my house.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Clair%27s_Defeat
https://armyhistory.org/the-battle-of-the-wabash-the-forgotten-disaster-of-the-indian-wars/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Recovery