Medallion trees in Sandia Mountains New Mexico, USA

[jim mcnamara]

https://www.abqjournal.com/1218873/on-the-trail-of-the-medallion-trees.html

Medallions have been attached to trees that have had a core removed. The cores are used to count growth rings, the diameter of the core is a few millimeters and does not hurt the tree. The core can be long, like more than one meter in exceptionally old trees.

The medallion got screwed into the hole after the ring count and the germination date of the tree is determined in the lab. For example the "Canterbury Tales Tree GD 1387" germinated the year Chaucer began writing the Tales. You can google for lists but they often have MIA medallion trees listed. Trees die, get cut down, or blown down.

Ring counting for students: https://serc.carleton.edu/trex/students/labs/lab2_2.html

 

[mcastillo356]

Nice post. I've been taking a look at the issue of dendrochronology
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendrochronology

 

[jim mcnamara]

Carl Fritz then at Northern Arizona Univ, late 1960's - was one of the first to date logs from ancient hogans on the Navajo Reservation. IIRC, the researchers created a 'calendar' of tree rings from a large sample of trees and some logs in the local area on the Defiance Plateau, then compared the data from the stone hogans.

I do not know who did this kind of research first.

 

[mcastillo356]

Sorry, jim mcnamara, when you write stone hogans, are you talking about Stone Hogan Park, in Fulton County, Georgia?

 

[jim mcnamara]

Hogan is a Navajo word for a kind of circular house with one door facing East. These have stone walls, not wooden, which was unusual - also probably why they lasted longer. They dated to the late 1100's early 1200's.

My bad.