Once Upon a Pine: Poland’s Mysterious Crooked Forest

When the New York Times reached out to Dr William Remphrey — a retired plant scientist from the University of Manitoba — about the mystery of the Crooked Forest, he must not have been surprised. After all, he was the scientist who had, just a few years prior, discovered the secret behind some similarly odd-shaped aspen trees in Canada: a genetic mutation.

The idea that the strange shape of the trees was caused by a genetic mutation is a leading Crooked Forest theory:

• All four hundred of these trees are of the exact same species, are bent in the exact same way, and are facing the exact same direction. Genes, therefore, seem to be the most logical explanation.
• The fact that similar forest mysteries have been explained this way makes it likely that the trees of the Crooked Forest, too, suffer from weird genes. If these swirly-shaped trees in Canada grew like that because of complications in their DNA, why shouldn’t the Crooked Forest have the same explanation?
• Interestingly, though, Remphrey is personally not of the opinion that genetic mutations are involved. The fact that each tree had only one curve, coupled with the smoothness of the curve, led him to think that the bends were man-made, as he told the New York Times.

But is it still possible that genetic mutations are the case? Yes. Remphrey himself has admitted that an explanation is “not so easy”. So we definitely can’t rule out this theory.

Sources: New York Times

One other intriguing theory argues that local foresters were the masterminds behind these twisted trunks. Their intentions? To make furniture — or art.

• Using timber from shaped trees goes back centuries. In early England, for instance, shipbuilders used wood from naturally bent oak trees to make the curved pieces of ship hulls. It was very possible that local foresters, intending to use the wood for constructing curved furniture, buildings or boats, manually bent the trees.
• Besides woodworking, the foresters could possibly have had artistic reasons for bending the trees. Artificially restricting the growth of trees for aesthetic reasons also goes back a long time. Japanese bonsai trees are still made this way, and artists Northey and Cook have now pioneered the Pooktre method of shaping trees, which produces results like this “person tree”:
  

• And up until the 1930s, the Art Nouveau style of art, which was inspired by natural, curved forms like those of plants and flowers, was popular… so who’s to say that the foresters didn’t have it in mind when they bent those trees?

Unfortunately, these foresters have since disappeared, if they ever existed. The decimation of their town during World War II likely meant that they had either escaped or died. So we are left with these strange tree forms… and we will never know for sure.

Sources: Atlas Obscura, Inhabitat, The Treeographer

It is a fine morning, on this day somewhere between 1939 to 1945. All is quiet on the borders of this forest, four miles from Gryfino.

It is then that something begins to roar in the distance. The roaring gets louder and louder until tanks bearing the symbol of Nazi Germany roll into sight… and then there’s a sickening crunch as they drive over several young pine saplings on their way through the forest.

At least, that’s how one theory about the origins of the Crooked Forest goes. And it’s very possible.

• During World War II, Gryfino — then called Greifenhagen, as it was under German rule — was home to not just one, but two labour camps of the Reich Labour Service. In other words, the town acted as headquarters for some of the German defence forces. It is thus very possible that tank exercises were carried out around the area.
• Besides, the curves in the Crooked Forest pines all point the exact same way… as if some large weight had rolled over them in the same direction.

Although some are convinced by this theory, others are not so sure. If the trees were bent so heavily by these tanks, how did they survive at all? Besides, the crooked trees are surrounded by hundreds of other, undamaged, pines. Surely the tanks could not have driven through those without leaving a mark on them too.

Still, it’s an interesting theory, and not at all impossible.

Sources: Familie Tenhumberg, The Treeographer

Strangely bent trees, no cause in sight… it is not surprising that so many conspiracy theorists say aliens did it. One popular theory is that an alien spacecraft landed on the trees, bending them to the ground before taking off again.

Is this theory likely? Of course not. But it is hilarious. And it is definitely a more fun explanation than genetics or strange, tree-bending enthusiasts.

Sources: The Treeographer, The Vintage News