Shoe Tree Forest

Apparently this has been going on at this particular location, on the Caledon-Orangeville border, since the early '70s!

These Shoe Trees (or even shoes hanging from wires/fences) are a world wide phenomena and there are many questions about why they exist. Why do people nail or hang their shoes to these trees? I believe that there is no 'one' reason for this. Every shoe has it's own story. Be it a memorial, signifying the end of a journey, a new stage in life, growth, right of passage, or someone just wanting to leave their mark, or contribute to the mystery of this urban art.

In researching this phenomena I didn't think that I would come to find meaning that is so deep, from someone so close to home.

I stumbled upon a short documentary called "The Mystery of Flying Kicks". In this documentary Professor Marcel Danesi from the University of Toronto #UofT offers his insight to this phenomena:

"...Why we search for meaning, and why we must leave our mark. It is connected to memory. A kind of communal, long lasting memory. Its as if we live on through memory. And if you think in a certain sense that's absolutely true. Just the fact that you leave writing on the wall or that you leave a shoe somewhere, you have proven to yourself that you exist..."

Whatever the reason I think it's neat, magical even.