Now incorporate the numbers written on the trees to the years we found. Research in this step is vital (like the second quote of Hint#1 tells you). The only thing we haven’t used yet are those bold letters. Can you find a common link that is valid for every year/number? You should be ably to find it using just one or two of the trees.
Solution of this Step
Matching the numbers to the years should give you 1900-09281, 1889-09257 and so on. The bold letters, from the quotes in Hint #1, combined are “n a s a”. Researching each of these one by one – especially adding the term “nasa” to your search – should lead you to the common link, even after just two Google searches. In every year a solar eclipse has occurred. NASA catalogues all these, and keeps a database online (https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEcat5/SE1801-1900.html). The catalog number of that solar eclipse is the number written on the trees. This is true for every one of the trees, so all of them should lead you to a solar eclipse! NASA keeps a similar database for Lunar Eclipses but over there the years/catalog numbers don’t add up, so make sure you found the right database. That pretty much concludes all the substeps of ⓵ the quotes sticker from Hint #1 gave us. Now on for the ⓶.
Cards of Confound