woody saw your post, try using soupstone or chock to out line the carvings. this will help to understand the carvings better. do you have this good site for NGA. check the links to. watch for old trees with branches bent in a 90% angles, the forest indians would set up a tree to be used has a trail marker. later the spanish would use the trails going and coming from mines or exploring. boomer
Lost Treasure and Ghost Towns of the North Georgia Mountains
... scoured North Georgia, taking over Cherokee and Spanish mines that had ... very old birch tree(at least 160 years or more). Climb up aways and look for carvings. If you ...
ngeorgia.com/travel/losttreasures.shtml
The tree is a beech tree, used frequently by Cherokee for marking everything from trails to treasures. Tree definitely dates to before 1838, but that does not necessarily mean it is a Cherokee marking ... there are a lot of others marked in this area that are definitely Cherokee but this one seems different.