The original people in North America are known to have left directional markings across the land by modifying trees so their later growth would be crooked in a way that can be recognized later.
One method was to bend over a young sapling and tie it down, so the tree grew with a permanently crooked trunk, a method that is well documented in the eastern United States and often called "crooked trees" or "trail mark trees".
Other types of indigenous markings have been discovered all over North America, and now academics use the term "culturally modified trees". Many culturally modified trees have been documented in Alaska, including in the vicinity of Anchorage.
Not yet well documented is how the indigenous people would hide trinkets in the woods and dare their friends to go find them using crooked trees as clues. Legend has it that when they found the treasure, they would take an item and leave another item of equal or greater value at the site for others to find.