Leaving Your Mark.

In ancient times folks marked rock walls for various reasons......mystic rituals, messages, personal expression, art. Now those are important to us and we preserve them and would go to lengths to keep anyone from marking over them. So we revere ancient marks but because of how we define property we don't allow taggers to do their thing even though it is about the same motivations. It does make me wonder if they find a box car 500 years from now with some anonymous taggers marks all over it will it get any respect? Anyhow, just pondering that as to our consistency on such matters. Age, rarity and depth of perceived intent seem to be some separating factors.
I do agree with the leave nothing approach, enjoy the sights but don't be so self centered as to think anyone else needs to know you were there. Leaving extra firewood leaned up for the next time is a nice habit to be in and lots of small critters appreciate a spot like that as well.
 
Leaving my mark? I think there are better ways to leave your mark than painting your initials on some outcrop or rock that is of some historical importance. I don't do it and will not do that. What have I actually done?

As a kid, my borthers and I would frequently walk down to what we called "the bottom" where many beech trees grew. We carved our initials back then. To this day, I can still go there and find my initials from a long time ago. I remember seeing my Dad's initials carved in a beech tree in the same area when he was a boy and that made me feel good. I don't recommend carving your initials into trees where there is any kind of public access such as a park or whatever. I consider that defacing public property. I do distinguish it from what I did years ago from carving your initials in a tree at a park. Carved initials in beech trees gradually grown over and I don't see any problem and I don't think the tree was damaged. It's just a tree.

In college, I spent a lot of time on campus doing labs at just about any hour. A scheduled three hour lab may take 10 or 15 hours to complete. Anyway, as a result I did walk around campus a lot at night and it was not uncommon to leave my mark (pee) in the shrubs at just about every building on campus.

In the outdoors today, I generally leave no marks anymore except my foot prints.
 
OP, carving your name into things that do no belong to you is pretty bushleague, you are a giant loser.
 
willseeyalater said:
In ancient times folks marked rock walls for various reasons......mystic rituals, messages, personal expression, art. Now those are important to us and we preserve them and would go to lengths to keep anyone from marking over them. So we revere ancient marks but because of how we define property we don't allow taggers to do their thing even though it is about the same motivations. It does make me wonder if they find a box car 500 years from now with some anonymous taggers marks all over it will it get any respect? Anyhow, just pondering that as to our consistency on such matters. Age, rarity and depth of perceived intent seem to be some separating factors.I do agree with the leave nothing approach, enjoy the sights but don't be so self centered as to think anyone else needs to know you were there. Leaving extra firewood leaned up for the next time is a nice habit to be in and lots of small critters appreciate a spot like that as well.
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Excellent points, and some that I've wondered on myself. I don't think I made any real progress with my musings, which is a bit of an irritant really considering this avenue of enquiry can't reasonably be ignored. What is the difference between a kid with a spray can painting on a rock and an aborigine doing the same with some beetle blood and dung concoction......................About as far as I've got is wondering what it means for something to be “gratuitous”, and that we tend to afford a degree of mitigation in terms of both thought and deed for those that struggle........................Simplified; I'm thinking of a way back when, when the world appeared vast, unknown, and hostile, and people banded together in relatively tiny and fragile communities, and living was done at a local level. The world beyond a few days walk from the hovel was a wilderness that needed conquering. The kind of place that is breadline-delicate and ripe for superstitions to develop. The origins of all religions, desperate cowering timorous beasties looking out of their caves and literally thanking their lucky stars that the sun came up today, or later that their crops wouldn't die, and all that. Amidst all that - notices, totems, talismen, and signs, markers to signal to your tribe and horrible warnings to keep out groups out...........................Simplified for sure, but above is about where I've got to. The guys in the back when blazing a trail through the great unknown for the wagon trail to follow isn't doing the same thing as the kiddie that rides his BMX into the woods only to hack some bark off a tree because his knife needs testing, only to return home to the pop-tarts his mother just heated for him. The ignoramus from the days of yore didn't have a sophisticated comprehension of the finite nature of resources, or if he did it had to play second fiddle to just surviving. We don't have to go back that far to find a mechanistic view of creatures as just disposable objects, and even last century it was still morally acceptable to go on safari a kill stuff just for kicks. We might prize the vintage elephant gun now for what it is or was, but only a moron wants people going blasting elephants gratuitously with one today..........................I believe somewhere wrapped up in all this is how I discriminate between what people used to do and what people do today. I can go to places now and find it quaint that during period X such and such a bit of graffiti was carved - some of the really early writings of whores. And I think yep, and I bet you said grace before you ate and believed flaming chariots pulled gods across the skies, and you dangled your enemies from gibbets at the end of the road to ward off hostile tribes. I'd probably take photos of it. It's not disagreeable to me given the prevailing zeitgeist of the time that a gladiator would carve his mark into tree. I find that quite apart from a bus full of snotty school brats on a field trip armed with magic markers. The information is available for them to know better now. Anyway, that's as far as I've got with that avenue................................Back to modern times and I am just stuck at the question Smithhammer asked: “why do you feel a need to leave a mark?”. For myself I am lost there. It is obviously for communication with other people, but whom? And this is where I find a complete opposite to yesteryear. They were glad when they found a like fellow to communicate with out in the sticks. Whereas now, outside of an emergency I don't want to communicate with anyone else there. In fact, mostly, I like my trips less when I think anyone else will be there at all, and I try to avoid them. If I want to see something like a Banksy, well I'll save that for where the urban strugglers are having their problems with living.
 
I have Australian Aboriginal heritage , I understand why at least my people still go out to their special places and make their mark , its their record of who they are , where they fit in , our history and family tree is you will I guess .
I have spent many hours reading the names and notes others have left in some isolated wayside pull offs between Darwin and Pt Augusta , when we have been traveling , it was really up lifting to see once " Red and Bindi" had stopped by only 6 months before .. friends of mine who also travel around a bit .

When I was a dumb kid hitch hiking around the country , reading the info and opinions of others who hitched before me from the same spot on back of the signs and guide posts was interesting too .
Small , inoffensive marks , that still mark someones having been there , when and why or what they thought of it , I personally dont do it , but it dosnt make me want to rage in peoples faces when I see it either .

When its taken overboard .. major graffiti , vandalism , huge ego tripping.. yeah that , it spoils the place for the next guy .. thats pure disrespect really .

personally i have pee'ed my initials into the landscape in a lot of places .. but that is my only mark besides foot prints and tyre tracks

I am so much more about the mark the places make on me , the stories places have to tell . if a person is open to that .. it can be an amazing thing .
 
Well, I've been knowen to carve my wife name into wooden brigdes along with a heart or 2, and some of the girls before her to.
 
Franciscomv said:
I'm not sure this belongs in general knife discussion. I'm an antrhopologist and have seen the damage people "leaving their mark" can do on some pretty invaluable stuff. I pride myself in leaving as few traces as possible, especially in wilderness areas. I've never been big on souvenirs (most of the time I don't even carry a camera when I travel).

The only mementos I've got from some of my most fondly remembered trips are spoons I carved form some local wood (I love to whittle spoons).
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Thought this was a rather odd comment coming from an anthropologist.....to wit, if our forebears did not leave their marks....you would have very little to study in your chosen profession.

I personally like seeing where others have gone....like seeing animal tracks, just for humans. I am not talking about spray paint etc. but cairns, notched branches etc. leave me wondering who has passed before me. Just like finding arrow heads, bones etc. to me.
 
In the seventies I've made ​​a trip a year in Western Europe. Hitchhiking. From time to time I wrote behind signposts "dantzk was here" with the date. why? In retrospect I guess it's the "oceanic" feeling that provides such a lonely journey that led me to leave landmarks. I assure you that this has not changed the landscape.

dantzk.
 
You mean like defacing and vandalizing public property or damaging the bark of a tree?

No. Not really. I try to make it look like I have never been there.
 
You mean like this?

Sad how often I have seen similar "tagging",even on private property we have upstate New York.Carving initials,garbage and other miscellaneous

"treats" are often included.

img_2926.jpg
 
Myal said:
I have Australian Aboriginal heritage , I understand why at least my people still go out to their special places and make their mark , its their record of who they are , where they fit in , our history and family tree is you will I guess .
I have spent many hours reading the names and notes others have left in some isolated wayside pull offs between Darwin and Pt Augusta , when we have been traveling , it was really up lifting to see once " Red and Bindi" had stopped by only 6 months before .. friends of mine who also travel around a bit .

When I was a dumb kid hitch hiking around the country , reading the info and opinions of others who hitched before me from the same spot on back of the signs and guide posts was interesting too .
Small , inoffensive marks , that still mark someones having been there , when and why or what they thought of it , I personally dont do it , but it dosnt make me want to rage in peoples faces when I see it either .
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Those are some good points and reminds me of a few cabins I've been in over the years. In a lot of remote cabins I've stayed, it seems customary to leave your mark along with the month and/or year you were there. Some have even went as far as leaving little messages. For example, I've seen stuff like "W. Burney, '81 11lb Walleye", "R.W. 3/94 7 days O rain" or "Burt Long, 48" bull 9/87".

I'm sure there may have been a few people who would look at such scribings on a cabin wall and think "How disgusting someone would deface these logs". Personally, I find the little messages and/or markings of those who came before me interesting and to some degree, entertaining. The same can be said of some bluffs in the Ozarks that I've come across that had names/dates/messages scratched into them. Yeah, a few take it too far but overall most don't.
 
mike157 said:
if outdoors, i always try to follow what we practiced in the boy scouts decades ago (and hopefully they still do), leave the area in better condition than when you arrived. Nothing else. Mike
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leave no trace, and yes they still do
 
Though i do follow the leave not trace philosophy i have left my mark on a few trees, but it was more of a tomb stone for pasted hunting dogS out of respect.

The 1 time i marked my initials into something was under the old landcaster bridge back in pa before moving. Using itas a time capsule
 
sideways said:
I stopped carving stuff into living trees when we got caught doing it and we were forced to pack the tree out with us. Using manual tools to take down, process and transport a fully grown green tree is no joke, especially when you are a kid.
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I suppose that's punishment. Your superiors caught you defacing a tree, and as punishment—they have you kill it instead. :eek:

:)
 
I'm surprised that people actually care about "defacing" a tree (any tree?). I can see that attitude in a park, but out in the open woods, I see no big deal with it.
 
It never ceases to amaze me, the things i see every year while camping at State Parks. No one seems to care anymore, not even the Park Rangers or Park Police. I have seen & reported people chopping down trees for firewood. No one really cares. The Ranger i reported it to went & asked them if they were doing that !!! They said no & then that fine Law Enforcement person said we said they did. So, we had stones & whatnot thrown at our camper the entire rest of the time we were there, at all hours of the day & night. It is truly sad the way many conduct themselves these days.

I try to leave the area cleaner than i found it, with no trace of me.
 
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