Public Art & Design

The Basque Arborglyph Project

Basque immigrants from the Pyrenees Mountains between France and Spain came to the United States between 1860 and 1930. They left thousands of aspen trees carved with names, dates, poetry, and pictures marking their sheepherder duties that supplied mutton to the early Western mining camps. They, more than any other ethnic group, are being studied using arborglyphs carved over the last century.

Documenting Basque tree carvings helps us capture their experiences in the forest. Another reason the project is so important is that most of the tree carvings are on aspen trees, which are relatively short-lived, depending on their location. Mortality, disease, and wildfire destroy many carvings. The information was gathered over the years by the Basque Museum in Boise, Idaho, the University of Nevada Reno, Boise State University with the help of the Cenarrusa Center for Basque Culture.

Detail - one of forty-two of the panels from the mural (approx. size 11" x 11")


Volunteers have found hundreds of carvings. The volunteers cheerfully ignored the heat, biting insects, and stinging nettles in search of the oldest and most elaborate carvings. Although most were names and dates, the Basque also left poignant reminders that they were lonely and missed their homeland. Other carvings document their passionate desire for independence and in some instances political beliefs that were dangerous to express back home.

Arborglyph Art Project

In 2007 Audra Hoyt, a young Master Degree candidate from California who was attending Boise State University, chose arborglyphs and the people who created them as the focus of her Masters thesis. She took on the study of these unique "living" artifacts, cataloging and interpreting them. Through the process she wanted to create a lasting memorial to the people who created them.

We were approached by our client John Bieter, Audra's adviser and History professor. Dr. Bieter, who was at the time, director of the new Basque Studies program at Boise State, which we helped get launched, introduced us to Audra. We worked with her for several months to create a design for a large scale ceramic mural that we plan on mounting on The Basque Block in downtown Boise. The work was created to a width of 6 feet and will be produced on individual 1 foot by 1 foot ceramic tiles and mounted in a steel framework that will be attached to an exterior wall in public view.

The citation at the bottom of the mural reads:

"Basque sheepherders created these tree carvings, called arborglyphs, while working in remote areas throughout Idaho during the twentieth century. Loneliness and the need for communication moved the herders to leave their mark on the world around them. Usually written in Basque or Spanish, these arborglyphs record herders’ names, thoughts, and drawings and often represent the only historical data about sheepherders. Herders carved almost exclusively on aspens. As the trees grew, they healed themselves and black scars formed visible designs. On average aspens live less than 100 years; consequently, most of the oldest arborglyphs have already been lost. The threats of decay, fire, and vandalism accelerate the need for arborglyphs to be documented. The tree carving tradition began with the Basques and continues today by herders from Central and South America, most often from Peru or Chile.

This collage is dedicated to all the men who worked with the sheep. You are not invisible."

Artwork designed by Izar Iribarren-Gorrindo and Dave Green copyright 2007.

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