Old Aspen tags

[Bullshot]

I’m certain people find some good aspen initials/messages in remote areas. Not “encouraging” it but it does add some sense of history sometimes. Think of the Daniel Boone “kilt a bar here in xxxx” trees that were/are celebrated. I hope people use discretion and don’t abuse sensitive areas, national parks, or damage the health of trees. And preferably it would only be done sparingly in out of the way and meaningful spots and not like the normal vandalism on a trailhead. I’d like to see some creative old ones that others have maybe photographed.

I wonder if anybody knows of this guy or his family. Tony Lovato, Ojo, New Mexico. He (if still alive) or they may get a kick out of it. I’d guess it was done from the 60’s to the 80’s based on how other old dated ones looked out there. This particular one was nowhere near a trail, all by itself. I wonder why there? Did he camp? Kill an elk? Or just pass through?

 

[Dsnow9]

Oh man, I haven’t taken pictures but have come onto multiple areas with hundreds of them. Both areas that come to mind seemed to be old hunting camps by what was written. Same timeframe though. 60s-80s.

 

[Lilhowie83]

I need to take some pictures but in the area where my son and I hunted elk last year we found a lot of trees tagged with someone's name and then Peru. Most of them were from the 70s and 80s. We concluded that it must have been Peruvian sheep herders that were in the area back then.

 

[trb]

The Lord did not approve of what happened in this grove 20 years ago.

 

[Bullshot]

I need to take some pictures but in the area where my son and I hunted elk last year we found a lot of trees tagged with someone's name and then Peru. Most of them were from the 70s and 80s. We concluded that it must have been Peruvian sheep herders that were in the area back then.

I also saw some cool ornate ones marked with named and with Peru in sheep areas. The herders must get bored up there and kill time tagging trees everywhere.

 

[Akcabin]

I haven't found anything old but I have seen a few M+A with a heart drawn around it.

 

[rwc101]

There's some in the Snowy Range from the 1940s.

 

[shines@times]

I recall seeing some of the pornographic variety in a Quaking aspen grove about midway up a slope above Twin Lakes, near Bridgeport, CA when I was a kid. They were already old in the very late 1950's or early 1960's--I've forgotten on which trip of several we made during that era that my father and I climbed up there to see if a smoldering, lightning-struck tree was going to pose a fire risk.

There were quite a few marked trees, the majority just bearing initials or names together with dates, in the grove. As with others' speculations noted above, I suspect that many were done by herders who grazed sheep in the region, though I certainly can't remember any specific inscriptions so many decades later!

 

[Cammy]

Saw some here in California one time that George Washington and Abe Lincoln had left their mark on.

 

[2rocky]

The term is "Arborglyth", and they are considered an important anthropological relic if you are enamored with Basque sheepherders in the Great Basin.

• J. Mallea-Olaetxe, Speaking Through the Aspens: Basque Tree Carvings in California and Nevada, Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2000.
• James B. Dekorne, Aspen Art in the New Mexico Highlands, Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1970.
• Matt Kettman Tree Carving in California: Ancient Astronomers in Time, 2010

 

[ol_spark]

Basque sheep herders were a lonely bunch, that’s why they had so many sheep. Sorry. Picked one up a week ago in the dark on Smith Fork Road with my side by side and gave him a 3 mile ride so he could catch his hobbled horses that were making haste to better pastures. He’d have ever caught them without my help I’m most certain. Could only understand muchious gracious. I’m sure he was thankful.

 

[hank4elk]

I have seen them most of my life.
Was taught not to carve into trees at a young age. Grandpa caught me carving my initials into one of his neighbors walnut trees,like the pickers had. Cost me my pocket knife for a month and I had to work for the walnut grower every weekend for that month.
I got years of experience of doing it into something that I had made,from a tree.

 

[Letthemgrow]

Basque sheep herders were a lonely bunch, that’s why they had so many sheep. Sorry. Picked one up a week ago in the dark on Smith Fork Road with my side by side and gave him a 3 mile ride so he could catch his hobbled horses that were making haste to better pastures. He’d have ever caught them without my help I’m most certain. Could only understand muchious gracious. I’m sure he was thankful.

Highly doubtful he was basque, most likely Peruvian or Chilean. The basques stopped immigrating as sheep herders decades ago. (My father came to the US via this route in the '50s.)

 

[nwihunter]

 

[Sagebrush1]

Found this one a couple months ago. Ha! Go Sandy.

 

[ol_spark]

Highly doubtful he was basque, most likely Peruvian or Chilean. The basques stopped immigrating as sheep herders decades ago. (My father came to the US via this route in the '50s.)

I wouldn’t know one from the other. Only going on what the locals have told me. I also thought Peruvian but was corrected. None the less, he was thankful for the ride.

 

[Crimeny]

I saw very similar ones in the Wind River range last year. People would drive sheep all the way there from New Mexico, as I understand it. What a trip.

 

[shines@times]

I have seen them most of my life.
Was taught not to carve into trees at a young age. Grandpa caught me carving my initials into one of his neighbors walnut trees,like the pickers had. Cost me my pocket knife for a month and I had to work for the walnut grower every weekend for that month.
I got years of experience of doing it into something that I had made,from a tree.

Sounds like Grandpa was a decent man helping ensure that his descendants would turn out the same.

 

[hank4elk]

Sounds like Grandpa was a decent man helping ensure that his descendants would turn out the same.

Best man I ever met. I make no claim he does not deserve. Never be him,but I've tried.