19th Century Narragansett Memorial Stone Pile

by JimP

More than two years ago, Tim MacSweeney posted on this blog about a visit he made to Fort Ninigret in Charlestown, RI.

Click here to see Tim's original post.

In his post, Tim talked about finding a boulder with stones underneath it. Poor Tim got poison ivy trying to look at the boulder. Afterwards, Tim tracked down an old photo of Fort Ninigret showing the boulder with a number of stones around it. Here's a look:In the Records of the General Assembly for the State of Rhode Island, I found a document entitled Addresses at the Dedication of the Memorial Boulder at Fort Ninigret, Aug. 30, 1883. It includes all of the speeches given at the politically-charged affair, coming on the heels of the detribalization of the Narragansett Tribe. Some speakers, for example, called the Indians extinct -- at the same time, two Indians spoke at the dedication.

Another reference reads as follows:
A granite bowlder in the center of the enclosure is inscribed as follows:

Fort Ninigret
Memorial of the Narragansett and Niantic Indians, the Unswerving Friends and Allies of Our Fathers Erected by the State of Rhode Island 1883

According to the reports, the boulder was taken from elsewhere in Niantic/Narragansett territory. I have strong suspicions that it is the infamous Potter's Hill Rocking Stone which was written about earlier in the 19th century, and then just up and disappeared from history, and the hill.

So, then, is this proof that Narragansett Indians were casting stones on memorial piles in the late 19th century?

Outcrop and Rock Piles (2) - Northborough MA

I was walking in Northborough and came to a nice outcrop with rock piles (see video here), in a more or less south-facing layout. Here is the complete outcrop:
A sketch of the same scene helps to see where the rock piles are (highlighted by the red dots):Most of the rock piles are on support rocks and there is a rounded bump of outcrop at the top of the site. Note how the piles fill the view, evenly dispersed. Note how they almost suggest a checkerboard.

Here is the view from a different angle, a bit to the right and closer:
Let's take a closer look at the pile at the lower left in the last picture:That vertical-sided, wedge shape fits the idea of a "marker" pile, and the even spacing and arrangement of the pile in approximate lines re-enforces the idea this is a calendar site.

The outcrop is along the side of a shallow valley and I could see some rock piles over towards the bottom and on the other side of this valley. Here, we are looking back at the outcrop from one of them:
Here is the one on the other side of the valley.A couple of other views of the main site. Here is one from part way up, looking back down the front of the slope and out towards the valley with those outliers off to the right.
Note the lighter colored stone, which is feldspar - the poor man's quartz.

Here is a view from the top. We are looking down the front of the slope, southwards:
As you can see, there is another smaller outcrop off in that direction and lots of other rocks sticking up as bumps in the forest floor.

Gungy-What?

by JimPI don't know how I missed this back in February, but Connecticut Public Broadcasting went on a tour with William Dopirak of the Gungywamp Society. You can listen to the tour via a link on the page below. There are also a series of photographs that go along with the tour, also linked below.

Click here for the main CPB page
Click here for the photos from the tour

A snaking arrangement of rocks. Man-made or Natural?

This is from Northborough, in the Cooledge Brook area:
A side view:It seems a little "too good to be true" to be natural.

A Mushroom

Split Rock - Wakefield, NH

Norman Muller writes:

...While roaming the backroads near our summer home in Wakefield, NH, I spotted a split boulder in a field.A closer look revealed a cobble in the split and a pile of rocks at the base of the boulder, covered with pine needles and other organic debris.

Not more than twenty or thirty feet away was another large split boulder, and this one had a number of small stones in the split. I had been on the lookout for such features, and this was the first example I have seen in this area. Undoubtedly there is much more to be found.

Outcrop and Rock Piles - Northborough, MA

Random Thought

Why not change the name of the blog to Backyard Archeology? That would help make it clear that there is archeology all over the place in people's backyards.

Rock pile turned into backyard patio - in Norway

From the Aftenposten - News from Norway [Click here]

Nipsachuck News - case dimissed against Advisory Board

From an email:

"The case was brought by the developers of some land in the Nipsachuck area against the RI Advisory Commission on Historic Cemeteries. The developer argued that the Advisory Commission had acted improperly when it designated some historic cemeteries within the proposed development (one of the cemeteries was some of the rock piles that Meli had identified as marking burials). The case was dismissed because the Commission is only an advisory body - it cannot legally designate anything a cemetery - only the cities and towns in RI can do that under state statute. Thus the plaintiff's argument was moot and the case was dismissed. The question of just what the rock piles represent was outside the court's consideration and never came up. It was a case about procedure, not substance."

Update: Subject title corrected, thanks to "Annonymous" commentor.