Trail Marker Tree Sculpture Coming To The Grove

From Glenview Park District: Today’s commuters find their way around by looking at cell phone apps and man-made street signs. Before such things existed, people used nature to get from point A to point B. Native Americans created and used trail marker trees for navigation and to designate villages, landmarks and natural resources. An oak or maple sapling was bent and then secured to a stake, allowing it to grow horizontally and point toward a trail or path, often leading to a fresh water source. A horizontal tree was easy to spot in the woods where everything else grows vertically.

Illinois was the first state to report the finding of trail marker trees in the early 1800s. Many are now recognized as historic landmarks.

Well known historian and sculptor Dennis Downes, who grew up in the Glenview area, has been sharing what he knows about trail marker trees with The Grove. Now, the Glenview Park District has commissioned Downes to make a trail marker tree sculpture for The Grove, a Native American settlement, once occupied by the Potawatomi tribe. The sculpture, standing at 16 feet tall and made of steel and resin, was purchased by The Grove Heritage Association and donated to The Grove.

“We want to give people the experience of what it was like to come upon a trail marker tree. This one will be very life like and we expect people to be walking along and see it and wonder if it’s real,” said Lorin Ottlinger, The Grove Director.

The tree will be installed near the trail intersection to the west of the Interpretive Center. That placement was chosen because the tree can blend into the woods and vines may eventually grow all around it. A sign will explain the meaning of trail marker trees and how much they meant to those who used them.

Downes will be at the sculpture dedication and blessing ceremony at The Grove, 1421 Milwaukee Ave., at Noon on March 30, along with Ottawa tribe elder Hilda “Little Fawn” Williams and a Native American drummer. Cherokee elder Andrew Johnson, Executive Director for the Native American Chamber of Commerce in Illinois will perform a traditional “smudging.” Archaeologist Dan Malone, Downes’ wife Gail Spreen, and representatives of the Grove Heritage Association and the Glenview Park District will also speak.

The Glenview Park District is committed to providing meaningful public artwork. Just last year, Flick Park was chosen for the District’s first outdoor art installation. A 10-foot-tall tree made of brushed aluminum includes a cast 12-inch bird made of glass that sits at the top of the tree. It’s in the area of Flick Park which had been the former Synnestvedt nursey. The bird is symbolic of one which was spotted chasing its nest after the nursery was relocated.