Trail tree photographed by historian Bess Bower Dunn
on Waukegan Road west of North Chicago, circa 1910. Dunn Museum Collection.
Trail trees were used along Native American foot trails to direct travelers to neighboring villages, hunting grounds, and ceremonial grounds. The unusually shaped trees essentially “pointed” the direction the traveler needed to go. Typically, trail trees were oak or elm since they lived much longer than other types of trees.
Bess Bower Dunn (1877-1959) researched trail trees at the turn of the 20th century, writing: “[They] marked routes or trails… by taking a small sapling, bending it to the ground, fastening it, taking off the lower branches or twisting them around the trunk… so the forests of Lake County… became penetrated with a network of trails… marked by trees."
Trail tree in Warren Township west of U.S. Hwy 41 and south of Washington Street
near Park City, circa 1935. Dunn Museum Collection
Dunn also noted that "Some of the early settlers recognized these bent trees as landmarks of importance and made an effort to preserve them; others considered them deformed and cut them down.”
Though locals continue to report finding these trees in backyards and woodlands, only two trees in Deerfield and Zion are accepted as the last remaining markers of this early navigation system in.
Historian James Getz took this photo on Hazel Avenue in Highland Park, 1957. Dunn Museum Collection.
The United Nation of Potawatomi, Chippewa and Ottawa reluctantly sold their last remaining Great Lakes land to the U.S. Government in the Treaty of Chicago on September 26, 1833. Lake County's current road system is based largely on historic trails now paved over and in some cases straightened. Milwaukee Avenue, Fairfield Road, Greenbay Road, and Belvidere Road are a few of the former trails still in use today.
10 comments:
I enjoyed the photos, and the commentary. Yes, there are still a few of these trees in existance.
There is a group called the Mountain Stewards who are actively engaged in documenting and preserving these trees. You can learn more about them by visiting their site: http://www.mountainstewards.org or by visiting the bent tree forum at http://www.ahgweb.com/trailtrees.
I also find these trees to be very interesting. There is actually a large sculpture of a trail marker tree in front of the lake county museum (I am surprised it was not mentioned in the article since the author works for the museum...)The sculptor (Dennis Downes) is also a researcher and has a very informative website:
www.greatlakestrailtreesociety.org
IN HIGH SCHOOL, I USED TO STUDY AT A TRAIL TREE ( DID NOT KNOW IT WAS)IN THE WOODS IN DEERFIELD, IL. IT WAS PERFECT TO SIT IN AND PUT MY BOOKS AND WRITING PAD ON THE HUMP, WHICH WAS SHINY, LOOKED WORN AND ALMOST VARNISHED. I BELIEVE IT IS NOW IN SOMEONE'S BACK YARD NORTH OF BRIARWOOD VISTA SUBDIVISION.
I remember one in Evanston just off Green Bay road.
There is/was one in Libertyville where Rockland Road meets with park avenue east of town; there was a plant nursery; I haven't looked since about 1968,
I remember this tree too. It was accessed by the trail at the back of King’s Cove off Deerfield Rd.
There was one at Exmoor Country Club in Highland Park. It was in a wooded area not from the caddy shack.
I have what I believe to be an Indian trail tree that points to the Pecatonica River in Freeport. It’s in my backyard which was once an oak forest. I need limbs trimmed since they are dead hanging over my driveway and pieces continually fall on the cars. I’m going to save as much as I can especially the double trunk where the bend occurs
There were two trees on our street named Indian Tree Dr. One was next door to us, and was removed. The last one was at the far end, actually on Black Hawk Rd.
Is that where the church is at on the intersection
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