CMT

I noticed this tree when I was out with VSO a couple of weeks ago.  I think it is a culturally modified tree or CMT.  The literature I've read suggests that these wounds were made by Native Americans during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as they sought the inner bark and sap of the ponderosa pine for use as adhesive, medicine, and even food during periods of starvation.  There is a collection of these trees on the National Forest:  The ones I've seen are in Joe's Valley and the locals call them "peelers," but I was surprised to find this one in one of the coal canyons between Kenilworth and Sunnyside.  (I don't know why?  I guess they could be anywhere.)  At any rate, I had noticed, when I was there the first time, that there were five or eight other old growth ponderosas in a quarter-mile radius, and I began to wonder if those were also CMTs?  They are not.  At least not that I can tell.  I walked out there again yesterday—it is about 1.5 miles up the canyon—and looked at each of the big yellow-bellied trees, but this was the only peeler.