Indiana's Strange Tree Shrines
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.พ. 2024
- Indiana never ceases to provide odd and interesting roadside attractions. Likely one of the strangest, are the tree shrines, dedicated to dead trees!
Here you'll find some of the largest trees in the world, in not one but three shrines. And best of all, all of these attractions are completely free!
"That *wood* be great"... such a *gnarly* pun 😅
Painfully so!
Thanks for this great video! You always have something interesting to show us. I am from Michigan. We had very large trees here too. Most of them were lumbered out in the 1800's and many perished in the two great fires we had in the thumb. When I was a child I saw the most wonderful tree in my grandparents farm. It was a willow tree hidden back in their woods. My mother took us to see it. It was 20 feet across and so old the limbs had cracked and were like horizontal walkways 3 feet across. The crotch of the tree was 10 feet up and we walked up the limbs to it. there was a small tree growing in it because there was so much dirt accumulated there. It was truly something that I have never forgotten. I think that it was a Crack willow that had been there 100's of years. I don't know if it is still there. The woods is still there though. There is a search here in Michigan every year for the biggest tree, or tallest tree. Very cool! These Crack willows can get very wide. When I was first married we had property that had two willows side by side that were four feet across. I never measured them around.
Would’ve loved to have seen that tree! There’s rumored to be some gigantic, old growth forest trees, in the Hoosier National Forest, but I haven’t seen them.
Roger you have gave my wife and I another road trip.
Thanks for the great video.
Glad to provide roadtrip ideas! Weather like today has me ready to hit the road!
@@AdventureswithRoger
I agree!
Tthe sycamore is worth seeing, if you like that stuff. There is a bull beside it so big it got its own building as well. If you go down the stairs straight across the parking lot, at the bottom to the right, you can see the remnants of bear and exotic animal enclosers, because, the park was originally a zoo. There are lots amd lots of squirrel rhat are basically domesticated, they arent native, were released around the time of the zoo. Theres also a cannon right there, not sure what from. And a really old covered bridge people like to see, its not alot to see, but, cool none the less. If youre making a trip to see trees, id definitely recommend highland park in kokomo. I grew up here, Its a nice park. Also has "indian trails" for hiking. Though its not the best trails kimda washed out. @@papap.8006
It's now gone, except for a stump and a plaque, but the Council Oak stood in South Bend at the time of LaSalle and was the location of a treaty involving the Miami and Potawatomi Indians in 1681. It was a frequent destination of elementary school field trips, and close to my boyhood home. It was a massive tree with a "sprawling" canopy, which in later years was suspended by poles and cables. It survived two lightning strikes, but it's demise came via a tornado in 1990.
Was able to find a picture. Pretty big tree!
www.potawatomi.org/blog/2016/07/20/the-potawatomi-at-council-oak/
Love the tree shrines. So happy they saved them! Thank you. My town has nothing but sand hill cranes everywhere!. The fields are full of solar panels an the cranes an freaking out! Poor birds!
Large number of solar farms in southern Indiana now. Time will tell if it was a good idea.
@@AdventureswithRoger it would take half the land in the whole country to supply enough. An they are having a hard time getting permits to use them. No way will they ever work.
Those trees are fantastic Roger...but you're as big a treasure in my eyes 👍🤗
Thanks for bringing Interesting Indiana to my attention 🙏
A noteworthy living tree in Indiana is the Kile Oak in Irvington, on the east side of Indianapolis.
These trees had trunks comparable to and larger than some sequoias and redwoods!
💯 that's what the sycamore has always reminded me of since I was young. I grew up in kokomo, once had a job Clea kng in the room with the tree. It's massive inside where it's hallow.
Treemendous!! 🌳 thanks for sharing
I see what you did there!!😂
I love your pun!!! It makes me pine for more😆
I have lived in Indiana all my life and have never heard of these tree shrines. Interesting. Hoosiers have cut a lot of trees down for bogus reasons. I have heard of the Constitution tree but never seen it. Great episode.
Thank-you, Walter!
I'm always impressed by any stump that can provide a guy more than adequate shade on too sunny day. I actually have one of these in my yard and I love it. And I'm willing to bet any locals that may be reading this are familiar with said stump. On a Lane that goes by the name Cobb. Iykyk
Whoa!!! Roger... Great reporting!!!! And that's no bull hahaha.
✨🌳✨ Awesome that these were saved 💚🪵💚 Love it
I was born and raised in Kokomo. I remember when that old sycamore stump and “big Ben” (old Ben) were out in the open where you could touch them. That park “Highland Park” has a lot of history to it. It has an old covered bridge in it, a winding creek all the way through it. I remember wading through it as a child crawdad hunting, we would gather them in a pale and by the time we finished walking the creek we would release them back into the water. It had, what everyone called “Indian trails” just on the other side, all along the creek. We would navigate them and stop to eat berries we’d find along the way. There was even a zoo there back in the early 1900’s and the animals were caged below those Indian trails. I can’t say if the trails were there back then though. I could go on for days about all the adventures I had at that park when I was a child, from snow sledding the hills, feeding the wild ducks…etc. just so ya know, all the stuff us kids would do back then is no longer permitted these days. It’s a great park though! I’m an older man now but I still go there almost daily to eat lunch, hang out and reminisce the good old days. I highly recommend visiting the park if you’re ever in the area, there’s a lot to do there.
Very precious memories indeed! I always enjoy first hand stories from the comments section. These are worlds and wonders I never knew. It means so very much to me, that people would take a moment, and share a part of their life with me. 🙂
We sure had some pretty awesome ancestors!
I have taken shelter inside a sycamore tree while deer hunting twice.
Here in Indiana.
I could have camped inside.
Comfortably.
Two times. Wish I had a cellphone then.
But l know that it's still living.
Southern Indiana? I’ve been in one big enough to function as a tent for two people.
I really enjoy this guys vids..👍😎 Great work Sir!
I logged in so I could watch the latest "Adventures with Roger" to see what he was barking about in this episode. Your post are always informative an relaxing to watch, glad I tuned in for rest. Just happy it wasn't a sappy movie. Roger, you always get to the root of the story but now I must leaf you this comment. Thanks for posting. (oh, and lets not forget the tree in the courthouse at Greensburg...)
Whitney, you’re even with me on puns today. 4 by 4.
There is the KILE OAK in Irvington in Indianapolis. It is immense and still living. You should include this one also!! There is a small park that it sits in that is dedicated to it. The placard reads that it is around 400 years old.
Sycamore tree's are my favorite tree.
I'll have to take a motorcycle ride with the wife from Illinois to check this out.
Living in Corydon, love the Constitutional Elm, might have to check out the other ones!
🌳 That’s so awesome these were saved 🪵 Love it🌳
❤🎉Nice sharing 🐋🌹⚘🕊✍
This my new favorite channel. Awesome to find someone that has deep dived into all the strange history of this state.
The "farthest north" sycamore was in front of Cub foods at 60th and Nicollet in Minneapolis , until the gas pipe exploded. another was found a few blocks west of lake Harriet near 40th and Vincent or Wasburn ( 1 block east of Xerxes). Now the park board plants " London Plane" trees which are native to the eastern hemisphere, American sycamore are not so tolerant of winter north of Iowa.
Roger, when Indiana was first discovered by the White Eyes, they also discovered it was already occupied by others. Just as back East. In 1681, the French trapper and trader René-Robert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle called for a council of the Great Lakes tribes in the area to discuss the encroachment of the Iroquois. The council included Potawatomi, the Miami, the Illinois and others. The meeting took place under the Council Oak because it was such a pronounced and recognizable landmark in the area.
Despite surviving two lightning strikes in the 20th Century, the tree was finally felled by a tornado in 1990. Today, only a massive stump remains in South Bend’s Highland Cemetery.
Another interesting story.
Great job!
Thank-you!
There’s a “tree shrine” at Donegal Presbyterian Church, Donegal Twp., Pennsylvania. Preserved is the stump of the “witness tree.” When the congregation rec’d word in September 1777 from a rider that the British were marching on Pennsylvania, they gathered around this oak, and holding hands surrounding it, they pledged their loyalty to the cause of freedom. When the tree died, the wood was used to build a church organ.
That’s a wonderful story!
How lovely, not weird at all! I love sycamore trees myself---and we have some beauties in the State Park and Nature Preserves where I live, still alive, and massive. I have a favorite one that I like to visit while walking along the Little Miami River.
Thank you Roger 👍🏼 I wood not have seen them if not for you. As always I really enjoy you trips. As a Hoosier myself have learned many things about my home state. Thanks to you. Interesting as always.
My pleasure, Mary! Hope to do a lot more.
I live in Kokomo, In where the Sycamore tree stump is located and can remember it when one could walk up and touch it as a child also Big Ben the 'worlds largest steer 'at that time lived and is stuffed for all to see and it's in the same park.
Both used to be listed as tourist attractions on state maps. When I was younger, I would get a paper map at a rest stop, and circle all the great places to visit, identified by red squares. If I couldn’t visit all of them that weekend, it would give me something to look forward to for the next. But today, the state of Indiana doesn’t even publish paper maps.
Enjoyed video busy person / ✌️
In northern Indiana, in South Bend to be exact, we have Council Oak. A marker in front of the once mighty oak, now just a stump reads "Under this tree May 1681 LaSalle met with and induced the Miami and Illinois Indians to enter into a treaty to resist the aggressions of the Iroquois."
The only other LaSalle memorial I’ve seen, is just across the Ohio River in Louisville, on the right side of the 2nd Street bridge (going south). Fairly small plaque that almost everyone misses.
Right across the street from the council oak is where la salle landed. It’s a plaque on a rock in this little park that goes to pinhook lake( once part of the St.Joseph river). This is where he made his portage to the Kankakee river and eventually found a way to the Mississippi.
@@AdventureswithRoger Is there an email address that I could send info regarding other possible places to visit in southern Indiana?
Returpen@yahoo.com
I have been looking at the largest trees by state. This has gave me ideas on what to look for on my next trip off the state. Thanks!
Another fun adventure. Thanks Roger!
I remember having a keychain from wood from the Elm when I was younger. 🤔 I need to look for that.
They are floating around Corydon, nearly 100 years later. I remember seeing them for sale during the old Capitol tour, back in the 1980’s.
Well, Worthington is definitely on our list now…thank you!
Notre Dame has a Sycamore Tree featured in the Cave of Candles book that is very old. It is right next to the "Grotto" and is a great place for a photo by N.D. students and the locals.
It was still there last year when I visited.
I’m hoping to go north in April, the Grotto is on my list!
The book: A Cave of Candles (by Dorothy V. Corson), gets into the history of the Grotto, along with legends and lore of Notre Dame and Saint Mary's. You seem to be a thorough researcher, so I thought that this book may be of interest to you, though it does seem get off into the weeds at points. I am familiar with it because it seems to document my great-great grandfather's involvement in the construction of the Grotto. Family legend has it that many of the stones came off of his farm, just north of Notre Dame (Peter Kintz farm, on what is now Kintz avenue, long before the Toll Road came through). I enjoy your videos immensely.
@@AdventureswithRoger
@davekintz I enjoy deep history quite a bit. Especially stories about people or situations that changed history, yet people walk by it every day. 🙂
Nice to see you made it to kokomo!. Highland park is a neat little story. Alot of these little town parks have great history!. Cool little video man!. I would love to sit down sometime and go over some sweet gems in this great state. I know alot of neat places all around as so do you!! Keep banging these great video's out!!!
Always great content. Thanks, and keep up the great work.
That's cool ,I'm just a hand full of miles from the big limb in Worthington,next town north Freedom,Tarzan grew up there that might make a great show,love your stuff so cool to have you teaching us more about our neat little state ,that's right in the middle of it all
Pulling together a segment about Hollywood in southern Indiana. Lots of actors born here and locations used for movies.
Think of how many squirrels these trees could hold.
No, but you would think Oakland City,with a college team,the mighty oaks, and Wood Memorial the name of the high school, you'd think so?
That is an impressive tree stump in Kokomo
The only stump I’d ever that big, was at the old Niagara Falls museum in Canada. I think that one was a redwood. You could walk into it from one side.
Those were so incredible to see!
That sycamore in highland park is crazy. I live in kokomo. Its mind blowing seeing big it is in person. I had a job cleaning in there once, the inside of tree is massively hallow. Its bigger than alot of bathrooms. It appears to burned out. There was atleast a fire inside at some point, its charred black.
I’d read where they once used it as a phone booth. I wonder if they also ran electricity for lights, and caught it on fire?
I would have been nice to have something that interesting. All the town I grew up in was a rock on the courthouse square they pulled out of a river/swamp. It is a big rock.
Awesome video Roger! The limb from the big tree is mind blowing. That was just hanging around over head for a ling time. Thanks Roger!
It’s a shame they don’t have pictures from when they were living trees. I can only imagine how big those sycamores were, at one time!
@@AdventureswithRoger I used to work for a logging outfit. I have seen some really big sycamore growing along the creeks here in Perry county. But that's just big. Would have been a long day at the old sawmill also, trying to whittle it down to manageable pieces. Haven't seen you on here Roger, forgotten about you honestly. Clicked as soon as it popped up, you have at least four videos that I haven't seen or knew existed. Glad to see that you're still going, making awesome content!
Knocking-out some smaller topics before I go back to longer movies. I’ve filmed so many places, that I could edit for the next 3 months!🙂
So cool!! Yet ironic that there are literally three tree shines in the Hoosier state. As a born Hoosier from crawfordsville, I have many family members in Kokomo. They’re getting asked if they’ve ever been to see the sycamore stump, and if not, why? Lol. And I’ll share the vid to them also. Great stuff! Just like all of your work!
My pleasure! Highland Park is a nice little park with tree, steer, cannon, and a covered bridge. Further into town is Koko, a giant praying mantis sculpture!
I've been in several different woods in northern Indiana and also down at turkey run area and I have never came across any tree's that big anyways but that one is pretty big for sure for this state I am not sure about way down in southern Indiana!
Rumored giant trees in the Hoosier National Forest, but I haven’t yet seen them.
There is a wood shrine in Harmony State park in New Harmony IN, it is I believe a cookie cut from a Black Oak if my memory serves me right. It is enormous in any case!
Have not seen that one!
Of course we have seen the Constitution Elm many times
Shelbyville used to have the living remains of the Lindon tree of Indian lore. but then they cut it down for the Firestone parking lot
Had not heard of that one
Great video.
Thank-you, Charles!
@@AdventureswithRoger I like all the quirky stuff. We used to travel in our old station wagon on family vacations in the 70,s and 80,s. Went all kinds of places. Big bend national park was a favorite for sure. There was this crazy little village that had people doing skits, I think I rode a donkey or something. That was over 40 years ago. Great memories. Thanks again for the video.
Probably the greatest gift I ever received, was a book called, “Around the World in 1,000 Pictures.” Made back in the post World War II era, the black and white photos show tourist attractions across America, in pristine, idealistic, inspiring ways.
info is cool to know ty
Don’t forget the tree in Pendleton where the men who conducted the Massacre on Fall Creek were hung. It can be found in the towns Fall Creek Park.
Have been there, included it in the “Footsteps of the Ancestors” film. Prosecution and capital punishment, for killing native people, didn’t happen before that.
New subscriber here. Enjoying your channel!
Welcome to the adventure!
During the garden of eden time period the earth was covered in a much more pure atmosphere which affected the plant growth and length of human life. Indiana and Missouri area of the country was the actual location for the garden of Eden.
What about the Shoe Tree in Crawford County? That's about as quirky as it gets ad far as Tree shrines....
Thanks Roger, while I live close to the Constitution Elm, I had no idea about the other 2.
I got the old shoe tree a few months ago, put it in a few videos.
@@AdventureswithRoger yes, I've seen those also, but now others, if they read the comments, are aware of it as well and will continue thier Adventures and find them.
Its sad that trees this big are so much more rare now. I've seen a few in my area of Indiana, but they where not in good shape and one has since died :(
There are rumored to be some huge old trees, deep in the Hoosier National Forest.
@@AdventureswithRoger I've never been there, but would to go and find them.
The little town of Orestes has an oak tree that is of notable age and size. But I don't know the details right now. It's only a mile or two from the worlds largest paint ball too.
Hoping to visit the paint ball this year! 🙂
“Orestes is home to an oak tree that is estimated to be at least 350 years old. For many years the town hosted an annual Oak Tree Festival.”
Up north in Illinois there was a huge tree. They mayor gave the ok to cut it down before the state employees could get there to save it. They cut down the tree to put a parking lot in for a O Riley's parts store. The tree rings where counted. It was 3,500 year's old the state said.
Wonder where the trunk ended up?
@@AdventureswithRoger I don't know where it went. What I read is some State officials did get a part of the tree and that's how they ended up finding out how old it was.
@@AdventureswithRoger There was another huge tree that was ancient over at the big tree trail outside of Shelbyville Illinois. It was a beautiful trail you can go on I had a creek there and when she passed the creek you can see the big tree and they had it wrote off basically with wood so nobody can get around it. Then about 13 14 years ago I believe maybe a little older lightning struck it split it down the middle and disintegrated it and they had to cut it all up and haul it out of there. Horrible but I did get to see it back in the late 90s and early 2000s.
A few decades ago, I visited the old Niagara Falls Museum. They had a HUGE tree trunk, one you could walk inside. I wonder where all those displays went when they closed. They had two-headed cows, a mummy, just lots of bizarre curiosities.
@@AdventureswithRoger I don't know sir. Somebody's trying to erase history on all sides. Now over there in illinois. In Illinois Central Illinois there is a Hill called Williamsburg Hill. It's on the outskirts of Shelbyville going towards Pana Illinois. If you want to you can look up some of the information about the hill. It is haunted they say which it is. There's a cemetery in the very top of it. The American Indians told people not to have a settlement there in the 1800s but they ended up doing it that a stagecoach came through there and a bunch of people ended up dying mysteriously there's been lights orbs and a person saw a funeral reception from the 1800s going on up there. I've been up there a bunch of times. It's one of the highest peaks in Illinois. I've heard some people mention that it might be an old ancient tree trunk.
Brown County history talks of a sycamore stump that housed a six horse team (learn at the courthouse) and I believe a photo of this exists at the library two blocks away.
Wilbut Wright wildlife refuge has a sycamore that I was most impressed with while hunting there...
I hope to get up that way in the spring
Maybe barking up the wrong tree.😀 Sorry couldn't resist
😄
Wait wait that's only a limb! 😮
Yes I do know a tree that is supposed to be the oldest in Indiana. In Henry county. It's is in Hillsboro outside of New Castle. The state hospital grounds were there at one time. It is huge but time has decayed it. It is also a hollow sycamore. There is another sycamore I know about in spiceland. When I was 12 my grandfather bought a house there. We measured it at that time and I can't remember the measurement but I do remember it took 6 of us holding hands around it.
Those would be some great finds! I’ve heard rumors of giant trees, in the Hoosier National Forest, but have yet to find them.
@@AdventureswithRoger well look up 6056 spiceland pike spiceland indiana. and the other spot in hillsboro in henry co is called blue river wildlife reserve a recognised tree from arbor day society.
@@AdventureswithRoger now i live by worthington !! lolol i must gravitate towards big trees!!!
I know there are some bizarre tree regions in Indiana. A few years ago I visited the Twin Swamps Nature Preserve. Bald cypress in Indiana! Place looked like the Everglades, very beautiful.
@@AdventureswithRoger wow roger your awesome!!! im looking it up. the terrain in camp atterbury was unusal to me. indiana is full of oddities. i believe its because of glacial activity during the iceage. also i think we have have had major meteriod and asteriod activity due to my research on meterites and dinosaur fossils i have. i also have researched the fossil fuel and mineral/metal ores here on my own property and nearby. i have saw tar/bitemin deposits like in california tar pits but not so massive. the town of westphalia is close to me. the name westphalia comes from the layer of earth that holds fossil fuel called westphalia. i recenty learned this and much more from the mining reports of the past til present. not easily obtained btw
Well... the trees are gone-- I think they took down the last one when I was a teenager in the late 80s-- but I believe there are still little signs marking the locations of the 'Archer Trees' out in front of the old Martin County Courthouse in Shoals. They kinda dress up the hanging of the Archer Gang in the 1880s by calling it the 'last public hanging in Indiana', but truth be told it wasn't done under color of law. They were being held in a secret location for trial & a mob found out where they were, broke them out, & dragged them up the hill & lynched them.
Had heard a bit about that. I did a segment about the Reno Gang, in the process read about the archers
CT Capitol building has a tree inside it cut down in the south after the civi war and brought back here because it has a cannon ball lodged in it. Some kid in the 1950’s said how do you know the cannon ball is not live. It was.
😳
@2:01 there are two different ways to take that play on words
My ex wife is from Kokomo . I've been over to see Big Ben and the tree stump , dozens of times . Both are impressive !
Old Ben?
@@sharksport01 is it Old Ben ? My bad . We divorced 10 years ago so , i've not been in Kokomo for a while ! Lol
@BartG87-
I saw Ben when I was about 3 years old and never forgot him. We moved to the east coast and in my memory he was Big Ben and about 3 stories tall. 😆 I tried researching Big Ben in Kokomo (pre internet) and never found any info. As an adult I visited the park and learned he is Old Ben and not quite so tall!
@@sharksport01 he's still pretty large ! Lol
That's a great park honestly . My kid's loved going there ! ❤️
❤
Hayes Arboretum, Richmond, Indiana.
That’s the preserve I couldn’t remember! Thank-you!
Elephant foot of charnenboyle...🎉
4:11 First time I listened to this I heard: "They cut off all the branches, covered the trunk with tar, and set it inside a brick enclosure, just as they did with Abraham Lincoln." Uh.. What?
😂 That good ole southern Indiana accent!
Thank you Roger. Is the "Burr Oak" shrine still on highway 11?
Not ringing a bell at the moment
People used to live in sycamore trees.
While you're talkn trees, in Mount Vernon at the lake at the park of the same name(that I cant think of?)there are some of those trees that grow in the Florida Everglades that get the knees,you know right?.......Cypress! Only place in INDILLUCKY that they grow, somebody planted them there obviosly a few years ago,cause they're Ginormous! Like you like to say,thats all I got😏 about trees I guess?
Twin Swamps is definitely cool! Someone told me there’s another bald cypress stand in northern Indiana, but I haven’t seen it.
Mysterious Twin Swamps Nature Preserve (Mount Vernon, Indiana)
th-cam.com/video/ruaQ6wB6v2c/w-d-xo.html
We have cypress and trees in southern Indiana
@@AdventureswithRoger Yeah (bald) cypress,thank you, but Twin Swamps? Really? I'm not debating, but I was thinking something like Bogie or Boogie or Wogily or...it's been 25+ years since I rolled through on my way to a job site,and the guy driving pointed and said "that's those trees was telling you guys bout💨" so I'm surprised I remembered that much? (Twin Swamps) huh? Thanks!
You can also see some at nearby Hovey Lake.
Water it, might sprout.
Makes me wonder if Paul Bunyan was real
I’ve perused the internet looking at “stone trees”. While it might be a wild fantasy, someone suggested that Devils Tower is the stump of a huge tree.
@@AdventureswithRoger I do believe that's a high possibility. You should check out Tartarian architecture and theories. I'm sure Indiana has a lot
Indiana gets quite allot of railfan views
Have thought about doing a train video
Sadly the fair train that used run from Fishers to the State Fairgrounds is no more.
I haven’t lived in central Indiana for a long time, I’m sorry to hear that
I don't know but know body knows anything...
Family tree
We leaves trees be and don't bark about em. Sorry
💚🌳🪵🌳💚
This is so cool and yes Hoosiers do have a sense of humor and strong respect for all things home. ☺️💕 Somehow I was unsubscribed . 🥹 My grandma just happen to live on Sycamore street in Evansville ☺️
Brown County history talks of a sycamore stump that housed a six horse team (learn at the courthouse) and I believe a photo of this exists at the library two blocks away.