Search for "Historical" Trees On my Fall trip to Cliffs of the Neuse State Park, I searched for certain historical trees that are not typically known by the general public. Hikers could walk right by them and not know to look. ⛵ I knew enough history to know what to look for. From the mid-1700s to the mid 1800s, North Carolina was the top global source of "naval stores." These were products used for making and maintaining ships. 👑 Colonizers made use of the seemingly endless forests of Longleaf Pine (Pinus palustris) for lumber, tar, pitch, rosin, and turpentine. 🎻To make rosin and turpentine, notches were cut into the pine trees and the sticky liquid that ran out was collected. This was distilled into liquid turpentine and solid rosin. 🪓 After cutting down or weakening trees for decades, longleaf pines had to be sought hundreds of miles inland, like this park, which has preserved the landscape. ❓But could I find still living trees with the telltale marks of turpentine production? Could any be alive after so many decades? 🥾 I hiked to a long undisturbed woodland area and found a couple of old gnarled pines. Here's one of them and a close-up of its base, showing a "healed" wound which is characteristic of notching for turpentine production - around 175 years earlier. #ThickTrunkTuesday #LongleafPine #History #Nature #TravelTuesday

@RiversideBryan 🙏
BTW, it looks like I've been missing a bunch of your posts from travel and whatnot. You may see a bunch of acknowledgements soon from me as I catch up.

Gots to keep up with the growing waterfowl.