I have stayed silent until I had more information and I didn't want to interrupt the previous exchanges.
There are a few questions one might have looking at these carvings:
(1) What are they?
(2) How old are they?
(3) Were they made by the same person or in about the same period of time?
Please see the attached pictures. I have enhanced them using image processing. The initials are HDH on one tree. The second tree looks like it has a lasso or noose. There is a second object carved in that same tree, but I haven't been able to figure out what it is.
I tried using my American Tree reference book to help identify these trees, which I hoped would clue me to the age of the carvings. In fast growing trees, initials can widen and eventually disappear. In old trees, they go remain for many years. I had a hard time with the limited amount of tree shown in the pictures. So I sent these pictures to a tree expert in central Alabama. He is the Regional Extension Agent for Community Forestry.
The tree expert said he couldn't be 100% sure, but he said it looked like a Ailianthus. (He'd like to have a picture of the entire tree to be sure.) If it wasn't this, it was likely a Lonciera or Broussonetia. Those are very, very fast growing trees and the Ailianthus has a short lifespan -- about 60 or so years. The Ailianthus can reach 12 inches in diameter in less than 10 years. The fact that letters HDH are wide means the tree is a fast grower, which is consistent with what the tree expert advised.
The other tree looks like a young Platanus (Sycamore) he said. Those trees can have a lifespan of hundreds of years. But he said it was a young one. The American Sycamore grows fast to maturity -- in about 20 years. After that, the tree grows very slowly. If you look at the carvings on this tree, you can see that they have not thickened like the initials on the other tree. So the carvings were probably made near the end of maturity or just after.
I was worried that maybe the carvings were done by two people. From the tree analysis, we can't confirm this for sure. But we can confirm that they were made within a few years of each other. We also know that the markings cannot be from any group (real or imaginary) from the 1800's. They are likely less than 40 years old at best, which agrees with what homefire said. The tree expert agreed with this analysis.
I have searched many places for the letters HDH and one item came up that seems plausible. "Hang Dem High." That would be consistent with the noose carving. But I did find many other possibilities -- including initials of a judge for tax cases. There is even a revolver (pistol) made with those initials etched on them. But most references keep taking me back to about the 1960's. I could not find anything specific to central Alabama that had these letters. Of course, it could be just someone passing the time and carving their own initials. I sort of lost interest in looking deeper once I figured out the tree age.
There is another point, which may be useful or not in this case. The Ailianthus is an invasive species. They spread quickly. If there is more than one or two of these trees around, then it normally points to a plot of land that is unkept. These are not normally planted trees and are usually thinned or removed if near dwellings or homesteads. So if you have a few of these, it is likely that not many people have been living around in that area for a while. I don't know if that is a good thing or not for a treasure hunter.
So in summary, the carvings are not old. They are 10's of years at best. We can home in on the age better if we had better pictures. It is doubtful these carvings are treasure indicators, but they are signs that people have been in the area. (So maybe you'll find modern treasures there with a good metal detector.) If you do find carvings in the future, check the type of tree to give you an indication of their age. To determine the tree type, take pictures close as was done here, but also include a picture of the entire tree or at least the leaves.
This is all I can do with the information provided at this time. I don't know if this is helpful to you or anyone else for that matter. It was at least fun trying to research it on rainy days.
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