If You Find A Bent Tree In The Forest, You May Have Just Stumbled Upon A Centuries Old Secret 

wish you had pics!

@@tenaciousbeep1802 that’s a great idea! I’ll see what I can do, but it’ll be a while before I’m back in that part of the world. I’ll post a link here eventually 👍

My mother still has the cane too

What a wonderful tribute to and memory of your grandfather. The cane is a treasured family HEIRLOOM!

❤

I'm glad you got to see it before it was cleared.

Sorry xxx

What you created was more beautiful than any modern housing development

And you had huge fun shinnying up those saplings to bend them over! My version of the hut is in maple, and now 30 years old. I haven't seen it in 20, but it is in a PA state forest, so no developers.

Moral of the story: the machine comes for all. Be absorbed

you might want to inform the local natives and/or archeologists about that location. They would have an interest in documenting and preserving it.

@@clausroquefort9545 I will do so

​@@Merrybearskyvideo?

@@eetuthereindeer6671 I will post one

Please please post a video or at least pictures! I hope you successfully bought the rest of the property and will preserve that area. Also please invite archaeologists from a local university or museum in to do some work. Do not hire an archaeological company, who comes in before development… they will ruin your site. Archaeologists from museums or universities will do the site justice.

I heard about this in a lecture by Terrence Mckenna, that there are churches that have these trees out front that are used for beams in the roof, and just when the beam is rotten and not able to be used any more, the new tree is grown and ready to be used for the new support.

@@russelllukenbill that’s pretty cool!!

Except they were then cut down and used for that purpose, so none of them would be standing today. Folks didn't go through that trouble and then not use the tree.

@@sasachiminesh1204 It's not something you do today and use tomorrow. They were thinking 50-100 years ahead, they didn't know that ships would one day be made of steel and buildings would have different construction.

In the Gulf Coast, near Pensacola is a Naval Oaks preserve. It's part of the Gulf National Seashore. The Live Oaks were set aside by the Navy for shipbuilding and there were lots of trees like this.

Interesting

The Aboriginals of Australia used marker trees they had a different technique but basically with the same purpose these people could have taught us so much but their ways have been mostly lost . But to there credit these people still live on.👍

@Whiterun Guard Ones that have to be felled for whatever reason offer unique opportunities for woodworking. Shapes that are normally impossible to get in one piece without softening wood to bend it in hot water can be made without that extra trouble. Seamless archway for a door would look amazing!

@@Bok2022st I watched a YT video on how the Aboriginal people are now being treated and killed in Australia, and found it so disgusting. How can this Racist Genocidal shit continue on in this day and age is beyond me? I used to think highly of Australia as an American ally, not so much after seeing such hateful crap.

Hardwood trees which grew in these shapes, were and still are, prized by wooden ship builders for structural parts of the frame. With the grain following the bends of the growth, the knees of a ship could be made from a single piece of wood, rather than pieced together. Knees of a boat/ship are like gussets which strengthen the joints between larger pieces of the frame. I've read that areas of civilization that took on the building of large wooden boats/ships, would intentionally cause trees in the vicinity to grow in such shapes, for use after they matured to build more boats.

Are you trying to disprove the marker tree information here?

@@virginiamoss7045 One plausible explanation is that this bending phenomenon was occasionally observed occurring naturally and then was adopted and utilized for navigation purposes, building with curved lumber etc.

@@jsvoable Absolutely. Native Americans did the same but used the results differently and long, long before ship-building.

@@virginiamoss7045 Interesting. What's the the evidence for this? Ship building is a practice thousands of years old in many parts of the world.

Fellow Michigander and disc golf course enthusiast, I see much of the same thing all over the woods. It’s amazing how resilient plants are, especially trees. Quite a phenomenon . On my property there are many trees that fell like that and actually started growing into the other trees branches.

Go dig around the base of it if it’s allowed. You’ll find arrow and spear heads. Beads….all kinds of shyte

I know that tree!

@@pgfairbanks go dig around it

Ned, it would seem like there were faster ways of constructing a "signal" for the falls. Could it be that during a flood (frequent I imagine), that another tree landed on it and bent it into this shape? Just sayin, but I love the story ntl. Hell, you might be right, who's to say.

you see trees like that everywhere when you hike long enough

What you saying not man made

So they are not trail marker trees.

Depends the age of the trees the logs out west were cut alot more recently, also the intricate highway system of trails is confirmed out east not sure about that out west

@@AcrosstheTraxks what kind of highway? Can you tell me about it? Who made it? I've seen several of these in cali

I've seen similar in Florida... with no snow though?

Thank you.

Your theory sounds more plausible than this yawn worthy load of bunkum. This nasal sounding narrator does talk over, on so many videos I get sick of him.

​@@HookBeak_66 Amen. So darn annoying and chose to read the comments instead.

Best explanation . Thank you

Don't tell the History Channel, they'll make a 5 season show from your place.

yep that's the only way I know this to happen, me being raised in the woods. Nothing special or fancy purpose, just life finding a way

Both causes are true. I've seen both situations in my travels.

​@@feedigli agreed. Lots would be natural and some could be manipulated.

That’s what I’ve learned too, people did this in my country (Norway) back in the day. It can also be done to bend wood (it becomes very strong) for use in more artistic architecture.

It’s like hedge sculptures on steroids

@@DevinMcSalty no lol it's different than that. Closer to a Bonsai Tree

The thing about this theory is you have to start the bending process 30 to 50 years before you're ready to build your ship. It might be true these trees were cut for this use but for the modern day man to have a tree this big with this bend native American basically would have had to start this process. I've dug many native artifact from around these tree. At the Jersey shore they are long know as a marker for fertile summer hunting land for the Iroquois who spent the summers here hunting and fish them migrating west to winter over far from the shore where they are all over in the pinelands and almost everyone is an old growth cedar tree which are very flexible when small. Then bend the 2 opposite lower branches and let the main stem grow up straight and the 2 side branches look like goal posts. I found one with the lower 4 growing up. I considered cutting it and using the 4 branches as a set of legs and the main trunk could hold a massive table top. It is sitting at the bend of a creek and due to erosion it is going to fall over into the creek which is the only reason I would cut this marvel down. It's the craziest sight it has 4 equal branches growing almost perfectly square around 10 inches but the base below the 4 is over 2 feet. Nature did not do this. No how no way. Nature doesn't make early clay pots and flint arrowheads and deposit it around these trees 3specially when flint is not a natural stone you find at the Jersey shore. We even find bone tools that were hardened in a fire used to scrape hides and some as drill bits for putting holes in wood. Nature does deform trees also but these bent branches were tied down by natives then the branch wound turn to bend towards the sun on its own all they had to do was bend the branch, secure it out to the side for a set distance then allowed to turn itself to the sun so they could make these perfect goal post looking trees. Some were cut at the top around 50 years later and carved and we're said to be totem poles that told stories of the area and how good the hunting and fishing was

@@jeanponce2017 Most of the main streets in your town (assuming US idk why), were the original foot highways of whoever thought that area was the shit and started building. You're overthinking this lol. And, outside of the US, 30-50 years isn't long for cultures that have been building ships for thousands of years lmao.

1000% still there. But you’d be surprised to see they haven’t gotten all that big in all those years.

That’s an ingenious method, my goodness. Must take a long time though

Wow! Very interesting. Thank you.

This is true, but those wanting to disbelieve these marker trees and call it natural circumstances will have to also disbelieve this shipbuilding practice which is very well documented. Why are some humans so closed to logical explanations? Might it have to do with the fact that native Americans were involved instead of white Europeans? I suspect so.

Great idea!

Almost like in RDR2 lol

I think they got washed out from glacial melt I see them around creek beds in my area

there is one already.\

I was told this also. Where I live if you find one, you can usually see another way off, and so on. Until you find a fence or a posted sign.

I have one, too, and there are 18 in my small county in north Georgia where the Cherokee had a rather advanced and thriving population until Europeans came. There's a rare pine one next to a river in north Florida on my grandparents property. Mountain Stewards has a web site pinpointing with photographs and coordinates marker trees all the way down to the tip of South America and north into Canada.

Saplings were tied down in the direction of where to find water.

@@deborahpalmer8298 Yes, sometimes, but there could possibly other reasons, like navigation, as well. We don't really know for sure though there has been some corroboration from elders passing down knowledge from those earlier times.

@ Virginia Moss, I rely on the validity of Indigenous knowledge and storytelling. But like you say, we don't really know about other reasons.

My family has a farm out in the country and nearly the same thing, Indian artifacts and an old dump have been found, as well as one of these marker trees. I hope to travel it’s path and document what I find as well, Godspeed to you.

Exactly

Which is likely what happened to most of the trees in the video. The guy lived in Michigan and they get enough snow & ice that stays around for months that could’ve caused the trees to grow like this. I live in southeast Texas, however. Near the Gulf of Mexico. A 1/2 inch to an inch every few years is a blizzard for us. 😂 We do get some nasty ice storms (for us) occasionally but it all melts usually within a week or two so I don’t think it’s the cause here. I too have always been told that the trees we find here that are like this are native Indian tree markers. It makes a lot more sense here given our lack of snow but who knows? Maybe some of them are markers but most of them are probably just natural, no matter where you find them. I can think of several ways it could happen naturally. Snow and ice being one. Wind being another. I’ve seen areas that get a lot of strong sustained winds that will cause trees to grow like this. There’s a forest, I think in Japan(?) where all the trees are bent like this in the same direction because of wind. I think the more likely reason is because a tree or heavy branch fell on it early on causing it to bend over. The tree will then grow up towards the sun, exactly like the ones that are covered in snow & ice. The dead tree eventually rots away completely leaving a weirdly shaped tree.

A fallen tree over a sapling will bend it over as well... the bent tree will then grow up towards the sky (as they always do). Over time it creates the S shape and the fallen dead tree rots away. Also flooding will permanently bend a tree low too the ground, and if the tree survives will them curve upwards. There are so many reasons for this tree to form that way. Not saying a human couldn't bend a young tree like this, and I am sure there are many instances of it. But, it is going to take a long time for it to be visibly noticeable enough to be of any use while navigating the woods.. Furthermore, during the middle of the winter, that tree bend will be completely buried in snow (especially when it was younger). That makes no sense. I guess I'm skeptical.

you'll notice that all of them have a "nub" pointing at the ground. This will be where one branch was tied down to point the sapling in the desired direction. If you look at the trunks of all of these trees, the original trunk stem points up, not sideways like a tree that has fallen over. While it's possible for a a tree to naturally snag a branch in this fashion, if there are multiple trees in a row, that lead to a natural spring, or in place before a dangerous place in a trail, it's hard to just assume it was an accident.

Hi David, do you know of where I could look into this more? I'm struggling to find examples in England. I've defiantly seen some on woodland walks, but it would be great to see if there's any write up about this in England.

My father was a timber feller during and after the Second World War, he took me on many walks in the various places he’d worked, but mostly it’s just a keen eye and personal experience wandering the copice, woods and forests that you build up a picture. I’m not aware of any literature, it’s mainly just verbal tales from generation to generation. Sadly the woodsmen are virtually gone, replaced by managers and contractors, the estates are mothballed and hopefully they will enjoy a renaissance at some point. Having spent almost an entire working life myself in an allied industry, I fear for the knowledge will soon disappear. A great place to start would be OS maps, get into divining and discover the joys of finding routes in what little ancient woodland we have left and connect with nature.

@@matthewj.harrison116 I know of one in near where I live in a wood in North Somerset .

@@Dougarrowhead cause you're an azz hole.

@@Dougarrowhead I can, you azz hole. I know of trees that are possibly 300- 500 yrs old.

Agree, we are nature.

@@Dougarrowhead Why?

One in an empty lot beside my grandparents old home in gamewell NC..NEVER HEARD OF THIS ITS STILL THERE AND IM ALMOST 50...

They got underneath it it might be a cash I live in Maine and I know a guy who found a cash in Ashland Maine and it had a bunch of stone tools in it and stuff

@@outdoorlifemaine6691 Cache?

@@jnooney8225 yes do not know what it is it's a like a storage area that you would leave and come back to

I live in Missouri too, not far from the James family farm where Jesse is buried, there's trees like that along the river everywhere.

I live in Iowa on the bluffs of the Mississippi River,there are two trees like this on our property. My grandmother told me when I was younger the Indians formed them pointing the way toward our family home because my ancestors provided bread and food to hungry Indians. After reading and hearing about pointing towards fresh water springs, it resonated with me because a fresh water spring is in the direction the trees are pointing.

I'll second the vote for tree markers in Missouri as well as a rich documented history of Native American activity throughout the state.

None remain in Missouri. Our trees done live long enough. There are a few left in Texas and some out west

Indians used these trees to lead to various places

@@gwendolynmeredith5779 Yelp out in the Water for ship biulding

Proof that native american indians were in the UK. They were very good at hiding, you see.

No evidence for this happening in England. Bent oak was sourced from trees grown in an open environment and since English Oak species are known for their lack of apical dominance they tend to grow very bent unless grown in a dense woodland where they are forced up by the light.

Farmers in uk often cut a tree and lay it down then weave the supple branches together over time to form a sort of hedge but much stronger with usually 5/8 trees growing upright in it......they aren't it's just the one tree. amazing stuff ..... It's called low stress training when done with plants....not sure about what's it's called in forestry

Exactly, they happen naturally and are not “marker trees”

They are have long been referred to nurse trees. The fallen tree feeds the new trees.

all i can find from that is a photo in the 40s of like 5 trees sprouting out from the log lying flat on the ground. ig its not around anymore since it seems like all photos were taken before color photography existed

@@MW-on1ft Actually, the fallen tree is often the same tree still growing. Redwoods are incredibly resilient, and an old growth cut down will often sprout shoots straight from the cut trunk.

@@Robo-xk4jm But color photography existed in the 40s. Unless you're talking 1840s.

I've seen one like that. It was in NC or VA a long time ago. Added beauty to the woods.

Bigfoot

Avatar

The mushrooms you were picking

Wrong. These were done intentionally by native Americans to point a direction to a water source.

😔

​@@Kenneth-mx5lxlearn to read. They are referring to their own experience with younger trees known personally to them.

That sounds interesting but I have a contradicting story. The one I have appears to be doing this strictly because it got too much phosphorus or rooting hormone. It’s a red oak

@@Kenneth-mx5lx the trees I'm referring to are 70 years old or less. They were most definitely not manipulated by Native Americans 🤣

Did they tie them to the ground to force them to grow horizontal?

Yep. But everyone in here thinks it’s a trail marker. Cause that makes total sense lol.

They most likely had older dead trees fall on them, leaving them this way. The old tree fall rotted away over the years.

​@James P Morgan Jr a whole tree rotted in 15 years without anyone noticing it doesn't seem a likely cause..

- The Trail Tree Project, http:www.mountainstewards.org/project/project_home_public.html

I used to make chairs out of Vine maple weaving them together when they were young and keeping them trimmed to make a front porch chair's.

I lost a good friend a few years ago to the quick flooding of the Llano river....

Hello Steve how are you doing, nice to meet you here 😊

It was also a grave marker, by the way the tree was altered would tell you about the indian and their lives.

There's a tree like this near my work, over a foot thick, so probably old. Is there any way to figure out what it was marking? This sparked my curiosity.

I was always told that's how native Americans used to mark trails. It's very common to see them In Maine!

There are some still around off hwy 87 if ever on that hwy keep an eye out.

I have one on the downslope of a hog back on my property near Gowen Michigan. It points right to the river about 75 to 100 yds. Away.

@@romeolima5339 I saw three of these trees while fishing a trout stream near Pittsburgh Pa . Makes me wonder if native Americans used them to mark streams or burial grounds

Seems water signaling is one of the undoubted uses of these trees.

@@Farmhouselivingroom I think the burial ground thing has been debunked by research. A problem with us whites, is that we tend to immediately associate anything left by the Indians with burial grounds. Kind of morbid when you think about it and their fate.

That’s why I’m here too lmao

Lol yea

Sad

@@thee_undertaker Have you ever played RDR2?

Anyone else recognize the voice?

There are some bent into the shapes of chairs and tables so when they're harvested they just need upholstery and a floor to sit on, it's very cleverly done.

That sounds awesome.

not true, that a old wives tale.

Yes, "have been told", "was said". tbt, they prolly used them for markers, but make them? hmm

The natives would stake the tree branches down with leather straps, this would allow the tree to grow and keep their bent shape.

Thank you

@@chrisstiff4734 You know more about the subject than they do. Why don't you make a video showing us some proof of your findings and don't waste our time trying to learn something about our past and the great outdoors like this video did.

I live in San Antonio too! Where abouts do you see these? I’ve never seen one before

Same?!

One did have to have patience, though. 😊

Hello how are you doing, nice to meet you here 😊

thats actually true and i have seen it happen myself to my neighbor's evergreen bush that was bent by the snow storm in febuary 2011 and when it warmed up in spring the bush was bowl shapped

I seen the same thing many years and I'm going on 61 I've seen it first-hand so this guy is so full of BS anything to get your face on the internet huh

Yep, trees like that all over our place. Most not over 80 yrs old. And ice storms can do this to any small tree.

@@cynthiaayers7696 yes these trees do bend. And sorry to tell you the Red Natives did bend them. They were to lead towards rivers & You will see old campgrounds.

Kinda like supercropping