Quaking Aspens have long been used as notebooks and drawing pads in the American West by the shepherds who accompanied the flocks to their high mountain summer pastures.

Most often the inscription consists of a name, a date, and a hometown or area in the Basque country.



But the subject matter runs the gamut from the poetic to the pornographic. Most of the flocks no longer travel into the mountains in the areas that I frequent.



As the trees age and die the florid script of the shepherds is disappearing.



They are replaced by crudely carved messages of "Drew Loves Jessica."
Those who study these carvings call them "dendroglyphs."

Brent