The “Dixie Cup 250”

Jim Roche, The “Dixie Cup 250,” 2004, graphite and color pencil on paper, 44.75 x 31 inches.

JR: I would like to say about the roads — because of the “where do you find them?” question — you have to go to states and find areas of the country where the roads were originally Indian walkways. They would take the easiest walking pathways and they didn’t go in a straight line. Then their trails became roads for horses. Then the horse roads became roads for wagons and those became gravel. Then they were paved. The original curvature is still there because you don’t just shoot a straight line, like we do here in Florida, as far as you want to, and say, go pave it, no, you can’t do that through the mountains. You find roads that hearken back to Indian trails.

My recent interest is in Indian trail trees. There are a couple of books on it, but not many, for some of us who have an interest; Indians would mark roads by bending an oak tree, most often an oak tree, I think, occasionally a chestnut, but oaks, primarily. While it is little, they would bend it over, cut it and make it turn in certain ways so that it grew out and pointed, often towards the trail for water, or in some cases, the trail might mark where they were going to be hidden. Especially during the Trail of Tears; there were quite a few cut to mark a direction where they may have buried things, or to caves and the like. On these very roads we might see an Indian trail tree, that’s a real rare find. It is a big deal to find a trail tree. The roads that we’re seeking, even in California, because there are extensive roads in California, Northern California as well, but those are Indian trails that then became gravel and then became pavement. It’s no fun, if you are a corner worshipper, to just ride down the road — cruise, you know, cruise.