The Forest Cellar

This past spring the farm next to my mothers house decided it would
be in their best financial interest to cut down two rather large
sections of wooded area that set at the back edge of their field. The
two forests were separated only by the railroad. Until there clearing
the land was pretty much virgin. The farmer never did much cutting or
clearing of the trees or floor.
I had a sentimental connection with these two wooded areas because
this was where I shot and killed my first deer. I was 8 years old at
the time and the deer had 8 points. The only off detail was that I
shot it 9 times. But that is another story.
The forests are gone now leaving a rather long stretch of black soil
where the old trees once stood. I grew up in the forests around my
area. They were my playgrounds and I knew every single inch of them.
Somewhere along the way I had the odd thought that the tress were all
directly and physically connected at their roots. A tress root can
run much deeper than its height and spread out as far as four times
the width of its branches. It is fairly easy to picture what the
forest floor must look like far below the surface. And if we could
cut the earth away we would see that the tree roots have all grown
together creating, in essence, a single organism from many, a picture
of physical unity.
I was able to see some of this first hand while watching them removed
all of the trees and bulldoze the land until it was plantable. And
now, where once a tangled forest stood side by side with its sister
there is a flat cornfield. Some might think that to be a great loss.
I saw it as a great opportunity.
The clearing of the two forests opened the door to the forest cellar.
This is all virgin soil and everything that has ever dropped in it
was protected by the root base and foliage that covered the ground
for countless years. The wonders that this stretch of land now has to
offer could be plenty or nothing at all. But the opportunity for a
treasure hunt is guaranteed.
I went and spoke with the landowner today who is an elderly woman who
leases the land out to other farmers, to see if she would mind if I
went back and spiraled the field for whatever might be back there. I
spent about 30 minutes with her while she was telling me about the
arrowheads and other things that the workers found while clearing the
forests out, and the rather nice price of tree trunks she sold to be
made into telephone polls.
She said that she didn't think that the workers spent any time
actually looking for anything back there but I was more than welcome
to go back and look around any time as long as I didn't hurt the
crops. Not too difficult since the field was planted with corn.
The planting of the field helps too because it means the soil has
been tilled and turned. So what is on the surface now was about a
foot under the forest floor went it was still standing.
I didn't have the opportunity to explore the fields today but I'm
going to try and make it in there over the next few days and see what
little secrets my old hunting grounds has to offer now.

Angel Snowden -2006