Speaking of trees, did you ever hear of the Octopus Tree?  We here at Your True Nature love to find interesting trees to appreciate.  Please don’t confuse this with the fabricated story of the Tree Octopus.  The Tree Octopus is a purely fictitious story created to trick people.  The Octopus Tree, on the other hand, is completely factual and well documented.  It is actually a sitka spruce with a peculiar growth pattern.Along the coast of Oregon are many dense forests.  The climate there is wet, almost like a rain forest, and the landscape is lush with many species of trees.  Archaeologists have found evidence that Native American tribes lived in this region as long as 3000 years ago.  The plentiful rain in this region allowed for an abundant and successful life for native tribes.   The Octopus tree is a phenomenon that is found in the forests here that show how trees were adapted by the tribes to be used as an important part of the burial process.  Historical lore and legend supports this information.   The tribes in this region would place their dead in canoes in the trees.  Octopus Trees have their shape due to the weight on their branches from holding the canoes.  Eventually, the trees maintained this shape and adapted their growth to accommodate the weight and shape of the canoes.  Once the growth pattern was set, the tree would continue to grow tall while maintaining the horizontal limbs to hold the canoes.  In the forests there are many examples of these burial trees but one tree, pictured above, can be found in the Camp Meares State Park area not far from the visitor parking lot.  If you are planning a trip to the Oregon coast, make time on your agenda to visit this state park.  The Octopus tree, which native tribes refer to as the Council tree and still revere today, is nearly 60 feet in diameter at the base.  This particular tree is considered pre-historical although without cutting it down the exact age cannot be determined.  Never-the-less it is mysterious and well worth the visit.  If you know of some interesting tree stories from your travels to share, please leave a comment.  We here at Your True Nature appreciate trees and always enjoy hearing about tree legends and lore from others.

Comments(0)