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Back when I was in California and doing research on old abandoned mining camps and homesteads, trees were almost always my first clue that I was on the right track.
In the eastern part of the San Joaquin Valley and lower Mother Lode, it was usually tall trees planted for shade and the remains of the homestead would be located in the immediate area. Once you got further up into the Sierras, it was almost always fruit trees and you'd find the foundation stones of buildings within a hundred yards. I don't recall the fruit as being all that great though - the cherries and apples were puny and usually pretty bitter.
Up in the redwoods of Mendocino County though, it was roses that usually showed where old homes once stood. Seriously. My buddy David took me to a spot up near where the old logging town of Irmulco once stood and there was several stands of old rose thickets spread out over an area of maybe a couple square miles. Scattered among those thickets were the remains of several old cabins.
There are two indicators of old homesteads here, Oak trees and daffodils
ReplyDeleteIn my area, on the NY / Vermont border, small stands of old Maples and Lilac trees seem to give away homesteads.
ReplyDeleteLeigh
Whitehall, NY
I hate to think of how many old apple orchards were wiped out by the Bear Fire. There were still folks huntin' for those old trees for cuttings and seeds.
ReplyDeleteInbred Redneck
Years ago in Mother Earth News, before they became so damn commercial and eliminated, The Last Laugh on the last page. There was a ad where you could buy the old apple trees. I wonder if you still can. Names I think I remember are, Thomas Jefferson's Favorite, Window Pane and I forget the rest. They weren't pretty so modern shoppers would never buy them. They just tasted good, imagine. They are not blight resistant. My brother bought four or five probably forty years ago and they were just ready to produce after pinching blossoms for two or three years and his goats got into the field. Goodbye apples.
DeleteThose roses are valuable. Antique or old growth types are like gold to rose fanatics. Also take a metal detector and lock for cash. People didn't trust banks.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, those old roses were probably brought from Europe. I don't think they are hybrid. Years ago I think Smithsonian did an article on, The Rose Rustlers in I believe Texas. It was a bunch of senior citizens collecting these old roses. They trespassed to get them and got into all sorts of trouble just to get a few clippings to propagate.
DeleteExcellent history I have never come across thanks.
ReplyDeleteThat is a very good story. We don't have anything on that scale here, but we do have old house places. Even in thick forests two to four (or more) giant white oak trees often signify an old homestead. At various times of the year "buttercups", boxwood shrubbery, fruit trees, rose bushes, an occasional chimney, foundation pilings, rock steps, etc. signify that that a house place was nearby. My daddy taught me when I was a small boy to be on guard because more than likely there was a dug well nearby. Several years ago I was slipping out of the woods right after dark after bow hunting that evening and I stepped on an old rusty can. I turned my light on and saw I was in old garbage pile with some mason jars, broken plates, more metal cans etc. nearby. I saw some tin from some out buildings. I went a little further and saw a round hole. I went to the edge, peered into it, and it was a dug well that was lined exquisitely with cut sandstone. After further investigation I learned the family's name who had settled there in the early 1800's and that their people had occupied the homestead until the mid-1950's. I have taken several people back to that spot to show the craftmanship of the well lining. Things like that intrigue me.
ReplyDeleteYeah, around here it's daffodils in the early spring way out in the middle of a pasture with nothing else showing around it. You can tromp out there and usually find a foundation or the cornerstones of a house.
DeleteIn 69 Hurricane Camille came to Nelson Co. Va, in a big way. Today you find daffodils and Iris in the oddest places. Most were washed to where they are by the floods. I used the daffodils for years looking for old homesites and soon learned it doesn't work well in Nelson Co. So, if you use that method ya might want to check if you are in a flood zone. Just useless info I thought I'd pass on.
ReplyDeleteNever thought of that, but we're not in a flood zone.
DeleteI'm pretty much on the edge of the Ridge (the local name for the highlands around the Nashville Basin). Ken, if you or I are in a flood zone, a lot of folks are already fucked.
Delete--Tennessee Budd
Like Nashville? They had a pretty good flood there back in 2010, didn't they?
DeleteI've seen rain running off my property like a river during a heavy storm, and go into Lafayette later to see sandbags around the businesses on the town square.
We live on the acreage surrounding the old homestead of a dairy farm. The house was built close to 1900. It has kinda been "modernized" over the years, but my interest is in the old original grass. Today people call the grass Saint Augustine and todays variety doesn't like shade and is real thirsty.
ReplyDeleteOur "native" St. Augustine is more likely the 100 year old "Carpet Grass", or maybe it had a different name back then. But it grows under our oaks and elms that can block out 90% of sunlight during the summer, and it thrives. Some of the grass grows over a leaky spot in the septic outfield and the leaves get real long. Like 10 inches to a foot long. I don't mow over it I just let it express itself. But when we move, I am digging up my heritage St. Augustine/Carpet Grass and replanting itat the next place I wind up. Maybe I should set out an acre to grow it and then sell plugs of it.
In my area back in the seventies when they started spraying and planting corn fields, no plowing, I started collecting wild flowers that seemed to only grow in the fields. I had a passel of them. I was young and stupid and moved never digging them up and taking them with me or taking seed. I sure wish I had.
DeleteAt Tannehill Ironworks in central Alabama there are traces of old homesteads in the woods outside of the park proper. One of the Rangers showed us how to find them: fruit trees. Pears, apples, plums and persimmons mostly. The fruit is mostly no good now on those old trees but I bet there's someone who wants cuttings.
ReplyDelete