Larch trees planted in a Douglas fir forest in Oregon create a smiley face among the woodland every autumn.
It’s true. They were deliberately planted by the owners of a lumber forest. The needles of the larch trees planted there turn yellow every autumn and create an image of a smiley face.
A photo posted on Facebook shows an image of an orange smiley face in the middle of a forest.
A caption states “David Hampton planted larch trees in the Douglas fir forest in Oregon to create a smiley face. It returns each fall and makes a happy showing.”
This image is real.
The face appears every autumn in the Hampton Lumber forest between the towns of Grand Ronde and Willamina in Oregon.
According to reports it was designed and planted in 2011 by the Hampton Lumber co-owner David Hampton and its then timberland manager Dennis Creel.
The eyes and mouth are made of Douglas fir while the yellow of the face comes from larch trees.
The larch tree needles turn yellow and fall off in autumn creating the image of the face.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as true because it was deliberately planted there and is visible every autumn.
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