Don’t go crook watching the Crooked Forest!
- Crooked Forest is a group of pine trees that are abnormally distorted and bent near the base of the tree trunks, and as a result the trunks have grown in a significant ‘c’ shaped curve.
- The location of Crooked Forest is in Poland’s province of West Pomerania, in Europe, near the town of Gryfino.
- The bends in the Crooked Forest tree trunks are at roughly right angles and generally in the direction of due north.
- Farmers are said to have planted the Crooked Forest in approximately 1930, making the trees roughly 85 years old in 2015.
- Crooked Forest features roughly 400 trees, that are arranged in 22 rows.
Crooked Forest
Image courtesy of Lisa/Flickr
- It is widely believed that the trees of Crooked Forest were purposely bent via the use of a tool or machine, up to 10 years after planting.
- Theories of the cause of the bending of the trees in the Crooked Forest are many, and some have said that it is a result of heavy snow covering, weird gravity forces and army tank flattening.
- It is likely that the trees in the Crooked Forest were grown in a peculiar way to create boat hull framing or furniture.
- The owners of the Crooked Forest probably abandoned their grove of trees during World War II’s impending Polish invasion.
- Tourists visiting the area commonly visit Crooked Forest, along with the region’s other interesting sites.
Bibliography:
Alford J, What Could Have Caused Poland’s Crooked Forest?, 2014, IFL Science, http://www.iflscience.com/environment/what-could-have-caused-polands-crooked-forest
Crooked Forest, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crooked_Forest
Mysterious Photos of Unexplainable ‘Crooked Forest’ In Poland, Earth Porm, http://www.earthporm.com/mysterious-photos-unexplainably-crooked-forest-poland/
Poland’s Mysterious Crooked Forest, 2011, World of Mysteries, http://www.themysteryworld.com/2011/09/polands-mysterious-crooked-forest.html
What fascinates me most about the Crooked Forest is the mystery behind it. No one really knows why the trees bend like that, and that sense of unanswered questions gives the place such an eerie vibe. I imagine being there in the early morning fog, with the twisted trunks stretching out in every direction. It must feel both beautiful and slightly unsettling at the same time.