Trees you have carved you name on...or initials

Banjo picker · December 21, 2010, 06:40:00 AM

I did this one most likely in 1974, as we married early in75..and it has Debs madin name initials....it was cut deep into a beech tree...note the tree is still fairly small..it hasn't grown much in about 35 years...I don't recall how big it was when I initaled it, but I would'n have carved on one much smaller than it is now...There is a pretty good sized beech stand in the area where this one is and there are a lot on names carved into the trees most are bigger trees...Tim

I am not suggesting we go around carving our names into trees, but I just wanted to share this little bit of my past...I would squirrel hunt back there when I was young and it is still a special place for me...

Tom · December 21, 2010, 09:59:18 AM

I've tied a lot of them in knots, but, believe it or not, I've never carved one, that I can remember. That's mighty special for you two.

Dodgy Loner · December 21, 2010, 10:00:05 AM

There is a beech tree near Spartanburg, SC that my wife and I will have to come back to see in about 35 years...If we can still find it. The carving is only 2 years old now

pigman · December 21, 2010, 11:55:54 AM

Dodgy is back. 8)
There are a lot of large beech trees in Kentucky with the initials DB carved in them. ;D

tyb525 · December 21, 2010, 02:22:50 PM

There are a couple beeches in our woods with my initials, plus one who's initials noone recognizes.

Then there is one down in New Albany, Indiana in the middle of a large woods that I probably couldn't find again, and there is one up near Harrison, MI.

Tom · December 21, 2010, 05:50:41 PM

Y'all ought to date those works of art.

Banjo picker · December 21, 2010, 06:07:45 PM

I think I may have put a date on one after we were married ,,If I can find it I'll get a pic of it...Tim

northwoods1 · December 23, 2010, 06:13:40 AM

Ha ha...

I always choose a beech tree too. Well, I guess it was more that when I saw good one to initial I just did, mostly jobs I was cutting on. I got pretty good doing with with the tip of my chainsaw bar I would put my initials and the year.
I saw one of the neatest beech trees it had marks on it from years and years of bears coming and climbing up on it. You could see how some where big bears and then there were little baby bear claw marks all over it also, almost the entire tree was covered with claw marks. They love the beech nuts.

SwampDonkey · December 23, 2010, 06:24:01 AM

I was in Central Park one time. I was with a friend of the fairer sex, but I was taking notice of the trees in there. With all them city folk down there, I never saw any tree bark damage from carving initials. They must watch over them trees like gold.

A smooth beech is not too common up here with all the disease on them. It's too bad to, beech is a nice tree. But, a curse if you have to thin them with brush saws. Like barbed wire and won't fall to the ground unless you pull and stand on top of them. They draw blood to. :D

Hi Dodgy Loner, long time no see.

Ron Scott · December 24, 2010, 10:18:34 AM

Large beech seem to be a favorite tree for carving initials. I have noted a number of them while marking timber. Some have dates on them dating back to many years ago and makes one wonder who may have been there and made their mark.

Landowner's who have initialed trees with their bride on their proposed harvest areas often ask us to leave them for their sentimental value. We usually leave most initialed trees as part of the properties historical history.

Also have run into a number of "bear clawed" beech. Some of them are well done with very deep claw markings.

Magicman · December 24, 2010, 06:43:34 PM

There was a Holly tree marking the SE corner of my property initialed by my Great Grandfather. I had looked at it many times, but never had a camera in those days. It was not marked, but a logger cut it down in 1973 because it was "in the way". >:(

Just Me · January 23, 2011, 09:29:22 PM

I never carved in one but in younger years chased a lot of bears up trees.....

I may have been there.......

My grandfather cut out a section of a beech that my dad carved on the farm in the fourtys with his full name and a skull and crossbones. He is a woodcarver now, go figure.

SwampDonkey · January 24, 2011, 06:19:46 AM

I don't remember carving in trees. But over the years I have noticed that NB'ers like to carve up picnic tables and out houses in parks. :

woodmills1 · February 20, 2011, 07:18:34 PM

Beech is the tree to carve. Kath and I did one 22 years ago and we still visit it

the new carved bark sparates so well, and lasts and and lasts

Banjo picker · November 08, 2011, 09:20:19 PM

I got to the back of the place the other day and checked out the other tree that I had mentioned to Tom last year...done after we were married in 1975

It wasn't dated as Tom had suggested but it had an unexpected supprise to go with it.. a fairly large popular had blown over and skinned the back side of it... Here is the mark it made. ;)

Thats just the way nature made ... no touch ups...Tim

beenthere · November 08, 2011, 09:27:21 PM

Banjo Picker
There is a real tribute to your affection over the years.

Now, did you date the scar face?

Banjo picker · November 08, 2011, 10:53:04 PM

I think I will do that beenthere.. My wife was the first to spot the heart. The tree that skinned it will be the first one I use the winch I have been putting together on...I was showing her where I was going to pull it across the creek and she said "Look at that"... We crossed the creek for a closer look and she had the camera with her... Tim

SPIKER · November 08, 2011, 11:04:21 PM

dont know if it is still there but used to be a big beech that has hundreds of initials carved into it down by a small walking lane back when I was a kid. we climbed up in about half way and put our marks on it as kids.

I've got a couple beech in my woods with several initials on as well as our girls added theirs at about age 12 w one of there friends. (not the typical heart s & BF/GF initials just first names.

might try & get a pic...

mark

WildDog · November 09, 2011, 03:35:48 AM

Banjo P thats got to be some kind of good omen.

Phorester · November 27, 2011, 08:02:42 AM

There is a beech tree at the edge of the yard at my grandmother's old farmhouse in Tennessee, maybe 30 inches diameter now. Right on top of a 25 foot bluff that drops off into the neighboring creek, Kizzy Branch. Carved my initials in it when I was a young teen or maybe younger. Impossible to make out these initials now, 50 years later, with the changes in the bark over the decades.

A few years later at my home in Virginia, I'd go across the road and explore the woods there. I climbed up into several yellow poplars - great for climbing with their straight trunk, uniformly spaced branches and smooth bark, nice and tall - and carved my initials and the date in the very top. Thinking that I'd surprise anybody who cut them down years later. All houses there now. Don't know if anybody ever saw my initials or not.

Al_Smith · November 29, 2011, 02:10:35 PM

Once in the bark of a quakey on a mountain near Vail Co .By this time that tree is either 3 feet in diameter or the beavers ate it years ago .I can't remember the chicks last name but here first was Patty 1965 .She was a cutie though .

Phorester · March 10, 2012, 08:33:31 AM

I might have told this story before, but years ago I started reading a novel. In the first few pages, the author was describing the house and grounds which was to be the main scene in the story. She had one of the characters in the story talking about trying to find a tree where he had carved his initials when he was a boy. But the initials had "long grown up high and out of sight". Hmmmmmmm........ I closed the book, never read another page.

Jeff · March 10, 2012, 09:42:48 AM

That's kinda like when we were at Tammy's step dads for a cookout one day. He and Tammy's mom now live in what started as an old cabin his father had bought on the Muskegon river. He was telling how small the trees that we were sitting had been when he was a lttle kid and how big they were now. He then pointed up about 25 feet at the hickory and pointed out a ring in the bark, and told me how that was where the old cloths line wire used to be tied when he was a kid. Now it was way up there. I now take everything the man says with at least one grain of salt.

SwampDonkey · March 10, 2012, 10:47:00 AM

Well a forestry instructor one time mentioned he was visiting a woodlot with the owner one time. But, when they got back to the house the conversation focused on a yard tree at the corner of the barn with ingrown fence into it. Asked the man how old the tree was. The man replied that he didn't know. He said it's always been there as far as he was concerned, just as it is now, and that God put it there. ;)

cutterboy · March 31, 2012, 09:15:16 PM

Years ago when my brother was newly married he and his wife carved their names in a big beech tree on the farm where we grew up. Many years have passed since then and the farm is now mine. This week my brother and sister-in-law came to visit my wife and me. We all took a walk out to their tree and they were so pleased to see it they smooched right there.

It says......Alden+Janice 4/7/74

The tree means a great deal to them. I told them I would never cut it down. Cutter

Ron Scott · April 01, 2012, 04:21:16 PM

Great picture! I've lift many such beech trees uncut at the request of landowners. I also have a few around the woods with my initials on and the year that I was there. ;)

Banjo picker · April 01, 2012, 09:43:30 PM

Cutterboy thanks for posting the pic.. When this topic came up again, I thought I would go back and reread it....The first reply was Tom....I have been sitting here cryng...I sure do miss him...Banjo

cutterboy · April 02, 2012, 08:05:43 PM

Me too Banjo, me too.

bandmiller2 · April 09, 2012, 10:05:22 PM

Crusing the woodlot across the street a wile back and found a perfect shotgun pattern on a big old beech.Never carved trees but took a hammer and chisel to the gatehouse foundation on the aquiduct behind the house where i grew up,my name in stone. Was in seventh grade at the time. Frank C.