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Trail of Tears and marker arborglyphs, Forsyth Co. GAA Rundown
Photos of the trees
The Initial Predicament of the Trees
History of the Trail of Tears Trees
The May 29th Meeting with the Forsyth Planning Committee
After the Planning Committee Meeting
The Forsyth News and shoddy journalism
EPD Violations
Edward Reynolds response to the Forsyth News and addresses
Atlanta Journal Constitution Article on the trees
June 26th Planning Commission Meeting outcome
Atlanta Journal Constition Article on the trees
On June 11th the Atlanta Journal Constitution published the following article on the trees:
The article online
In Forsyth County, trees speak louder than words: Urban sprawl threatens lore of Cherokees
Bill Osinski - Staff
Monday, June 11, 2001
The talking trees can barely whisper anymore.
Their stories of a lost people
and their legends of hidden treasure literally are being cut short by urban
sprawl. Two particular "talking trees" --- huge beeches marked with what some
believe are Native American symbols --- in rural Forsyth County illustrate
the conflict of local history vs. development rights. It is an issue that
will come into sharper focus as metro Atlanta spreads into the forests of
what used to be Cherokee Indian land in the hills of North Georgia.
Two
brothers, Jeff and Jimmy Heard, inherited parts of their family farm about 10
miles north of Cumming.
Jimmy Heard has partitioned his land for a
residential subdivision of large brick homes with three-car garages on
one-acre lots. Jeff Heard has left his portion in hayfields and uncut
hardwood forests.
Now, Jimmy Heard is seeking to develop a piece of land that
adjoins his brother's. Some of Heard's neighbors and Native American
activists appeared recently before the Forsyth County Planning and Zoning
Commission asking that two beech trees with Indian-type markings on his land
be studied for possible preservation.
Jimmy Heard then had one of the trees
cut up, though he said he has saved the part with the markings. He claims
they are of no historical significance. "It's a hoax," Jimmy Heard said. The
claim is being made by people who simply want to stall his development plans,
he said.
Jeff Heard sides with the preservationists.
"There's no doubt in my mind that the marks on those trees are original
Indian symbols," Jeff Heard said. "Those trees belong to all Americans,
Indians included."
No one seems to know just how many "talking trees" might
still exist in the metro area. However, Jeff Heard said the trees were once
fairly common in the woods of Forsyth, Cherokee, Dawson and Lumpkin counties,
where he has explored and hunted since he was a boy.
"Everybody knew about
them, but we took them for granted. We thought they'd always be there," he
said.
Forsyth County Commissioner Marcie Kreager said the tree dispute is an
example of development-related issues that are increasingly coming to the
forefront in Forsyth and much of the rest of North Georgia.
"These are issues
that people up here have not had to look at before," she said. "There are all
kinds of dynamics going on. There may be a rush to develop the land by people
who are afraid the county might stop them down the road."
Kreager said she
would like to see the beech trees on Jimmy Heard's property preserved if they
contain genuine Native American markings. However, she noted, there has been
no authentication by independent experts, and there is a question of whether
the county has the legal authority to tell private property owners what they
can and cannot do with trees on their land.
The county does have a tree
ordinance, but Kreager said that as far as she knows, it does not cover trees
that may have historic value.
According to Jeff Heard, the authenticity of
the markings on one of the beech trees in question was confirmed years ago by
the late Forest C. Wade, author of a 1961 book "Cry of the Eagle," a
compilation of Native American lore. The book also contains photographs and
reproductions of Indian symbols found on trees and stones on former Cherokee
land, he said.
He said Wade told him that the beech tree in question was
marked with what appeared to be an account of the Trail of Tears, possibly
made by a Cherokee who returned after the historic trek in which the
Cherokees were forced from their homeland to reservations in Oklahoma.
Lamar Sneed, a retired attorney and a Forsyth County
historian, said there were once many talking trees "not just in Forsyth
County but all through North Georgia."
Many believe the symbols on the trees
were coded guides to places where Cherokees had hidden valuables before their
removal from Georgia in 1838, Sneed said. At that time, many Cherokees
believed they would eventually return, he said. The U.S. Supreme Court had
ruled in favor of the Cherokees, but President Andrew Jackson defied the
court and authorized the removal, he said.
It is also true, Sneed said, that
the Cherokees had wealth to hide. Some of them, particularly the chiefs,
owned and farmed land and operated grist mills and even gold mines, he said.
There are also accounts of Cherokees coming back to the area as late as the
1940s, making secret trips into the woods, possibly to retrieve the caches,
he said. In 1935, two white men found a treasure trove of Cherokee goods on
someone else's land in Forsyth County. The case went to the Georgia Supreme
Court, and the trespassers prevailed, Sneed said. Sneed said the preservation
of the talking trees needn't conflict with reasonable development plans. Most
of the trees are near creeks or streams, areas not suitable for development,
he said.
Residential developers could "put a little history and romance into
their project" by preserving the trees and featuring their lore, he said.
Tim Welch, a friend of Jeff Heard's who has located about 10
talking trees around Forsyth County, said the markings appear to predate the
ownership of the land by whites. The symbols also seem to have been scraped
into the bark of the tree with a tool other than a knife, he said. "They
really stand out."
The trees should have some sort of protection, Welch said,
because the threat of unrestricted development is becoming more acute. "Large
landowners can't afford to keep their land because of the taxes," he said.
"You've got to sell out and subdivide."
However, he added, any move to
preserve the trees should be made quickly. Some developers might seek to
settle the issue by cutting the trees down before they can be located,
identified and studied for preservation, he said.
Edward Reynolds, a Native
American activist who lives in Gwinnett County, said he and the others who
appeared before the planning commission do not seek to block Jimmy Heard's
proposed development. They simply want the talking trees to be saved.
"These
trees are sacred to us," Reynolds said.
Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law.
Go to June 26th Planning Committee outcome on trees
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