Description

Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area brings Don Wells back to report on Trail Trees (ROGERS, Ark.) – Don Wells, president of the Mountain Stewards of Jasper, Georgia, will make a stop at 7 p.m. on Friday, June 27, 2025. This is part of his latest research tour to report at Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area on the most recent trail tree discoveries. “Back in the 1600s and 1700s, when Indians were traveling from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from Canada to Mexico, there were trails all over the United States. They didn’t have GPS or a map, so to find their way from A to B and back home again, they had marker trees, or trail trees, or a signal tree, or a yoke tree—they had all kinds of different names for them,” said Wells, “These trees would be bent as saplings, when they were about ¾-inch in size, and tied down. They would be left that way for a year and locked into that position. They used them to mark trails, crossing points on streams, springs to find water, and medicinal sites where they would get plants.” Back in 2007, members of the Mountain Stewards held a meeting at Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area to discuss these trees. That was the big beginning of the search. The Mountain Stewards, with their resources and technology, “took the ball” from that time and have searched all over the U.S., finding over 2,000 trail trees in 40 states. No reservations necessary. For more information, call 479-789-5000.