The King's Broad Arrow

• Subject: The King's Broad Arrow
• From: Wade Harrison <72053.3000@compuserve.com>
• Date: 02 Jun 95 09:43:27 EDT
• Approved: usenet@kuusi.metla.fi
• Newsgroups: metla.forestry-list
• Organization: Metsantutkimuslaitos
• Sender: daemon@kuusi.metla.fi (Mr Background)

Forest history enthusiasts:
 
I am looking for a sketch, diagram, artist's rendition, detailed
description, or even a photograph of the blazemark placed on fine trees in
eastern North America in the 1700s, marking them as potential mast trees for
the British Navy.  This mark has been called "The King's Broad Arrow" and I
understand it was a standard symbol of British ownership in those days.
 
I've seen two depictions of it so far, without specific references, courtesy
of the Forest History Society.  In both, the mark seems to be composed of
three blazes, one forming the vertical "shaft" of an arrow, and two others
of the same length forming the "arrowhead," on either side of the "shaft"
and higher.
 
In one of these depictions (out of a 1952 American Forests article by
Brown, with a drawing of a colonist with a hand-axe next to a white pine)
the mark is not so much an arrow as three equal-sized blazes. The two
"arrow-head" blazes are almost vertical and parallel to the "shaft." It
looks like it would've been chopped very quickly with three strokes of an
axe. The entire mark appears to be between 1 and 2 ft in length and about
six feet high on the trunk of the tree.
 
In the other depiction (out of a 1976 Forests & People article by Hammarstrom, with
a photograph of a presumably re-created "arrow") the two "arrowhead" blazes
are more carefully angled, and form a definite arrowpoint.  This one looks
like a real "arrow", and looks like it was made with a lot more time and
care.  The blazes appear to be chopped into the tree, rather than sliced off
with a single stroke.  There is not reference for scale.  There is a photo
credit that says "courtesy of Potlatch Corporation."
 
I have not yet seen the full text of either article.  If anyone has further
information (or places to look) for this bit of history, please e-mail me.
 
The info is to be used for a forestry history museum exhibit.  We'd like to
include a recreation of such a blazemark on the bole of a large pine.
 
This message has been cross-posted to FOREST and SAF-NEWS.
 
Wade Harrison
Summerville SC
72053.3000@compuserve.com

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