Sheepherders Tree Carvings: Talking Aspens

Whilst cavorting through the wilds of Idaho, we have been running across these tree carvings.. also called arborglyphs:

These are pictures of sheep

Some signed their namesThis one was done in 1951!

It says Jesus and a cross  is carved below...

With the Gold Rush in the 1850's came thousands of young Basque men.  When the Gold ran out, many of these men moved on to sheepherding across the West.   There were thousands of sheep for every one man and isolation and loneliness was par for the course.  Some became crazed by the isolation and suffered from a condition called "Struck By Sagebrush".
These men used a thin,sharp knife to inscribe the Aspens along their way: either political slogans, drawings of animals or women (some explicit!), or just, "Jose was here".  The inscription grows along with the tree when done skillfully.  Aspens don't have a very long life span, usually up to 100 years, so these drawings are rapidly disappearing

The Basques inhabit the Pyrenees between Spain and France. Their origin remains a mystery, and are considered to be some of the oldest inhabitants of Europe, possibly pre- Celtic.
Euskera, the unique Basque language, is unrelated to any other known language, and the only remaining language in southwestern Europe which was spoken before the Roman conquest. They also have the highest proportion of RH negative blood type, and virtually no B blood type , a genetically isolated population...

 ESKERRIK ASKO!