The paper provides a scientific insight into the history of human interaction with the environment. It focuses on the history of the Slavonian (oak) tree forests and lumbering that inspired the artists and their images. On the one hand, there is the well-known pre-war Vinkovci photographer, Franjo Körner (1901-1945), whose valuable collection of 97 glass plate negatives was accidentally discovered in 2020. Unlike Körner, another artist from Vinkovci used words to express his passion and love for the Slavonian (oak) tree forests. Being a professional forester, Ivan Kozarac wrote numerous poems, short stories and novels inspired by the Slavonian landscape. From the perspective of new cultural geography i.e. literature geography, the landscape is not simply a material artifact that reflects the culture in straightforward ways but is laden with symbolic meaning that needs to be decoded concerning the social and historical context.