SARDIS - Old sneakers, hiking boots and cleats dangle from the limbs of a centuries old oak that sits in a patch of dirt at an intersection in this rural Saline County community.
In the winter, when the leaves fall, the dozens of shoes stick out like candy canes on a Christmas tree.
But to those who live nearby, the shoe tree at North Sardis and Hogue roads is no mound of trash, but a source of pride.
"It's like the Statue of Liberty," Kathy Crone said of the tree that already was stacked with shoes when she moved there in 1968.
It's spawned folklore and laughs among those who live nearby. But how the first pair of shoes ended up on the tree is a bit of a local mystery.
"We have talked to several people about the shoe tree, and different ones have different things to say about it," Crone said.
Was it baseball players celebrating at the end of a season by tossing their cleats in the air? Or high schoolers marking graduation? Maybe, some guess, tossing shoes on a limb helped travelers navigate this part of the county in an earlier era before street signs and paved roads.
Even now, when Sharon Oliver needs to direct someone to the water utility where she works in Sardis, she relies on the unique landmark.
Just head up the road until you see the shoe tree, she's told folks for the past two decades.
"It's been an icon of the community for a long time," she said.
At least, those are among the more frequently offered theories.
Crone hoped the mystery could be solved by Elmus Barnard, an elderly woman who raised her children in the home on the corner near the tree.
But Barnard, now in her 90s, said she can't share the tree's secrets, if she knew them at all. She fell recently, she said, and bumped her head.
"I don't know very much," she said, seemingly ending any hopes of discovering the originsof the sole tradition.
Shoe trees pop up from time to time across the country. Some see them as unique attractions, while others call them eyesores.
"Shoe Trees may be the greatest embodiment of the American Spirit you can find on the highway," says RoadsideAmerica.com, a Web site that features off-road oddities such as two-story outhouses and white squirrels. "A shoe tree starts with one dreamer, tossing his or her footwear-of-old high into the sky, to catch on an out-of-reach branch."
Perhaps Arkansas' most famous shoe tree was one on Arkansas 187 outside Eureka Springs. Passers-by would stop off at the shoulder and snap photos, sometimes adding their own old soles to the collection.
Over the years, the tree grew weak under the weight of the hundreds of shoes that had piled on, and a 2000 storm toppled the monument. By 2003, other trees on the highway carried on the tradition.
Disgusted by the sight, the manager of nearby rental cabins took a saw to the limbs and carted off the shoes.
"That was the end of it," said Darryl Stephenson, who owns Cabin Fever Resort in Carroll County. He says there are no more shoe trees in the area.
At least in Sardis, the tree draws no complaints, said Saline County Judge Lanny Fite. He thinks that it could technically be on county property. If so, the county would have the power to cut it down, should it obscure traffic or otherwise become a nuisance.
But, noting the tree's reputation and status in the community, Fite was quick to add that nearby property owners likely would argue otherwise.
Arkansas, Pages 15, 20 on 12/25/2008