Stop Three

You can get lost in here. Easily. There are unofficial accounts of scientists getting lost for hours and sometimes even overnight while working in Larch Island.  But mostly, the accounts are of those who got turned around or confused: small incidents, barely worth recording or remembering. But when they happen with such frequency? You have to start to wonder.

Ada Listecki ¹ got turned around in here more than once. So, she decided to draw a detailed map of Larch Island. But no matter how careful she was, her map was never accurate. It was as if things in the forest kept moving, just slightly.

She recruited her friends to help with the map-making, and it was just up ahead, at the bench by the river’s edge, where they would gather to draw and compare notes.They realized, after weeks and months of making maps, that the same trees were often mapped in different spots.

They knew they had discovered something about the trees the scientists didn’t even notice. So, to continue with this important work, they formed the Larch Island Walkers Society (LIWS) ²  and recruited members to help draw. Soon they had hundreds of maps and drawings ³ of the area, and a stack of overwhelming proof: the trees probably walked their way into Larch Island in 1909. And it looked like they were STILL walking.  

.

foot.notes

1. Ada was the founder of the LIWS, and a former city-girl who drew a weekly comic strip of her lfe in the mountains. They were popular for a time, and printed in a major national paper (under a pseudonym, of course). 

2. It was originally named the “Society for the Preservation of the Peripatetic Trees of Larch Island,” but was changed to LIWS for simplicity.

3. Almost all of the early maps and drawings of the LIWS were damaged, but about a dozen still exist. Some will be on display at the Curbside Museum during the summer of 2021.