One of my favorite places to vacation is "the river." My family goes camping every Oct and June on a 13 mile strip of the Colorado River south of Lake Havasu. There we jet ski, drink, play poker, float… what ever we want.
On my way home from the river, I make one stop on Highway 62 before I get to "civilization." In the middle of the desert alongside the highway, there is a lone tree covered in shoes. I have made a tradition of stopping at "The Shoe Tree" and taking a few photos. This is a way of bringing an end to a refreshing vacation of relaxation, water sports and partying. I planned on doing this for the rest of my life.
The first photo I took was on my way home from an Oct trip in 2001 with my roommate and close friend Jake.
He was barefoot because he was looking for shoes to replace his worn out pair… he was successful in finding a pair better than his!
In 2002 I stopped by myself and decided to try to frame the tree the same each time.
Obviously people thought that just shoes wasn't enough, I've even donated a bikini top. The next year, Kelly and I stopped to find a surprise. Someone had burnt all of the shoes off the tree. But that wasn't enough to stop dedicated river rats. It was starting up again in June of 2003.
A year later, in June of 2004, it was full blown again.
So this October trip I had my camera ready and prepared to stop even though I was in the middle of a lighting and thunder storm. My jaw dropped and I almost cried when I saw what was left.
Just a pile and a few burnt shoes.
I, like many other river rats have been enjoying this tree for a long time and am very sad to see this. I have been stopping there for 5 years and have been able to share it with some close friends.
When I got home, I decided to do some research and find out why. On uslitter.org, there are a few reports of litter being a problem near the tree beginning in 2002.
"Although 5 bags of litter were picked-up over the span of 90 minutes, lots of litter remains. There are numerous spots along CA Hwy-62 that require a visit from the Litter Patrol."
In a report in March of 2004 it states "USLitter.org re-visted the Tamarisk Shoe Tree to see how it look after experiencing a on fire. It was sad to the see the hearty tree in such a sorry state. It may be best for the Tamarisk Shoe Tree to go away because the desert around it is full of litter." (I left the spelling mistakes in the quote)
This is the only clue I could find that leads to the reason the Shoe Tree was destroyed. Where the tree was remains a pile that was clearly bulldozed. Someone put a lot of effort into the death of a creative communal outlet.
Upon first reading this, one might think "well, if it was causing a litter problem, then good." But for those who have traveled this Highway, we see litter the entire 57 mile stretch. It may be a bit more near the tree, but a nice first step in preventing it would be to but up a sign near the tree and a trash can or two. I have personally never thrown trash out of my car on Highway 62 and I don't see why a stop at the shoe tree would make you want to clean out your car. There is a gas station right before you get to I-10.
Regardless of why or how, I am very sad to see the end of such a strange phenomenon.
Some Links:
Life Cycle of a Shoe Tree
Brief; a fellow river rat's appreciation
Nov 2002 Liter report
Nov 2002 Liter report which I quoted
March 2004 Liter report which I quoted
Posts
