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Located in a court yard type area near the court house, There are steps that will lead to this area, and walking paths. No Bushwacking needed. Take a look around nice view.
What is an Indian Trail Tree?
“Many years ago, the people native to this area, navigated through the Mountains, using an elaborate system of trail markings. The trunks of oak trees were purposely bent to point in a given direction, indicating, food, water, safety, etc. So, if you purchase land with one of these trees, please, do not cut it down, as it is a part of our local heritage. Native Americans made them Trail Signal Trees by bending a sapling and holding it by some means until the first curve was fixed by growth. Apical dominance (a forester's term) or natural trend to grow upright would straighten the upper part. Trail trees have a characteristic bend in the trunk, and a nose on the end of one of the bends. The nose points the direction to some point of interest to the Indians (trails, game, fish, danger, shelter, caves, boundaries, camping areas, rivers, shallow points for fording, springs, trading posts, etc.) Basically, the trail would be marked by bending, and then tying down, a sapling. Then the tree would grow straight up from the tie-down, and would point and mark the trail for as long as it lived. Sometimes, there would be three stones next to the trail tree, and the stones would point the way to the next marker. To move the stones or cut down a marker tree was taboo, resulting in very bad luck for the perpetrator. If you haven’t heard of trail trees, they were basically used as road signs/markers and sometimes secret message drop boxes by Native Americans. The white man had no clue about this early stealth communications & trails network until many decades after the Native Americans had been removed. Now that’s stealth! Cherokee and many other mostly eastern tribes bent and tied saplings that are now of course twisted and curved, very mature trees. To think that a warrior could have made one of these over a hundred years ago, to lead his comrades and their horses to water or to leave them some tree mail, and that it has survived and grown to a gnarly behemoth, is simply amazing. Some you hardly notice; some are overpowering. If you have one of these on a property you’re developing, please do your best to preserve this irreplaceable piece of history. Keep your eyes open for them. Just as the stars guided ancient mariners over the seas, in the Eastern woodlands of Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains, another sign was needed
to guide the Cherokees through their "Enchanted Land". A beacon and a guide to point the way was needed to navigate their way through the maze of trails already established in earlier days. The Cherokee learned from their ancestors the secrets of the Bent Trees as a means to guide them through dense woodlands, and to distant villages, sacred sites and hunting grounds. Following trade routes and through dense forest, Trail trees marked the pathways that intersected and interconnected to form a giant web they could travel by safely over an immense area. These "Day Stars" of the Cherokee marked a pathway through the vast territory they inhabited. But these living landmarks, once a unique feature of their culture, are one of the few remaining signs of their life in this region. Trail Trees in their time connected the Cherokee to one another and to the earth. Perhaps today they will serve to reconnect us to the living earth and the web of life that is not bound by time, but only obscured by our lack of awareness. Preservation of them is to preserve not only the tree in physical form, but their spirit and idea as well. They are the connecting links to a civilization, a people and away of life, a culture that is now past. The living presence of these Trail Trees is a treasure, a legacy from ancient times. We must always remember to honor these "Day Stars" of the Cherokee for what the have become - a last living link to that past.”
Orange Match Box Container, contains a log only BYOP. Thanks and I hope you enjoy the cache!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
FGHZC