I found some of the old threads about the problems with the first shipments of Cheboygan Crib, and the note from Kim that they would all be replaced. With that, I don't think this is such a mystery piece.

Only a portion of the piece had to be returned to HLs in order to receive a replacement. Some posts said the tree, some said a piece of the tree and some said HLs usually asked for the flag to be returned before a replacement would be shipped.

I'd guess that someone sent back a flag, got a replacement for their Cheboygan Crib, and then tried their hand at making the broken original piece presentable for display. Perhaps sometime after that they decided to sell all or part of their collection, forgetting about the history and condition of this particular Crib.

There were over 500 original Cribs. Almost everyone who posted said at least some of the ones they had were broken. And HLs offered to replace the entire run, broken or not. That's a lot of possibilities for the origin of this particular piece.

If that is what happened, does it make this Cheboygan Crib desirable as a HL oops? If this premise were to be proved, it would mean that this piece as it exists now did not originate with HLs. It would have been modified after its original sale.

Edit - Here is a link to a 2005 thread about the 'at the Reunion' sculpting of Cheboygan Crib. Harry is one of the pictures, holding the base of the piece which clearly shows the flag location sculpted at the same time as the rest of the base

Rick