HISTARCH listees,
I received a comment from Ron May, Archaeologist for San Diego County,
California, concerning the tree stump gravestone discussion. I thought it
was fascinating and wanted to share it for comment from others. Anyone else
ever run across this?
>>Mike, the person who sort of dismissed the Woodsman of the World may not
have the full story & then again maybe none of us do. I am reminded of
something I once read about 19th century settlers who routinely brought a
small cedar tree to be planted outside the house; "coffin trees". The intent
was to have enough wood to build a coffin when the time came. Many of those
folks moved off and left the trees behind. Some historians mark coffin
cedars as the locations of pioneer housing. I added this bit of trivia to my
survey kit years ago and do find lone cedars near trash scatters. You might
keep this in mind.
Ron<<