>>297891I'm not entirely sure, but I have 2 good guesses of the same nature.
For one, it's a territory (or property) marker.
If you were off trail in a park, or near a trail, it could be the property marker for the park/trail land. If you stray a couple dozen yards from the AT in any direction you can find posts and signs (pretty discrete) that say it's the border.
Otherwise, it could just be some random persons property marker.
Surveyors have to place a mark to go off of (Ever tried to find out if all the walls in your house are square? It's harder than you think, but the point is it's one of those things you don't consider till you need it)
Either way, the marker has to be placed in the ground (Not always a tree/feature/landmark where you want it) which is either typically a pipe driven into the ground, or a t-post. Problem being, the brush will grow up well over the post and conceal it rather well (hence why surveyors use machetes n' shit, finding these fucking posts in the brush) So to make life easier, you put a big bright sign up on a tree (where the grass wont cover it) and then fill in the blanks (Go left 40 feet, for example)
If you look in the area around that thing (Probably behind it) you should probably (maybe) find a post/marker of sorts.
But yeah, all of this is why surveyor is the ultimate-tier /out/ job.
