A grid site in Stow, MA - from Journals

by pwax
This is the most complete, well-defined site which I have found in Stow. It is one of the very best examples of a "grid"/"marker pile" site and it is on land that is threatened with development. If any readers are from the Stow area and wish to know more details, please contact me (rockpilesmail@gmail.com).
Like so many sites around here it has these noticeable characteristics

• occurs on the southwest side of the hill
• piles evenly spaced
• piles in lines
• some piles have a single quartz "blaze"
• all piles have approximately the same dimension except one larger "platform" cairn at the lower edge of the site
• piles built on a somewhat steep slope
• many piles are triangular
  

I first found this site when I took a wrong turn, ending up taking a quick peek into the woods and found it where I would not have expected to see a site: on a pretty steep slope.

Quoting from my Journal: "It is unusual for a site to be situated on such a steep slope. Here the piles are almost in a grid and are a bit reminiscent of several sites I have been looking at recently - including Bruce's Beaver Pond in Milford and the Sherry Road sites. There are also similarities with the Acton Spring Hill grid and the Boxborough Patch Hill grid. I think there is a class of sites with stack piles and somewhat even spacing and the kind of occasional alignment of multiple piles which I have been calling a "grid". And I think the nature of the slope is a key to understanding what might be more than one kind of grid. This XXX Hill site is on a pretty steep slope facing southwest over a lowland leading to Elizabeth brook about a 1/4 mile away. Water is here but not that close. I think a pattern is starting to emerge for this kind of site."

Here is a closeup of one pile - I cannot see the quartz in this picture but I know this pile has one piece of it.
One pile was different:
Quoting: "Some piles appear to have a retaining wall or almost vertical sides. Others lack that feature or are too tumbled over. The pictured tumbled pile looks like someone might have pulled apart one example of a stack. On the way in, this tumbled pile is the firsts pile you see and is the closest pile to the road. So it is likely to be a vandalized pile. Some (undamaged ones) are triangular or shaped a bit like teardrops and these are reminiscent of the Acton Spring Hill grid. One pile was significantly larger than others and might be a platform pile:"
In retrospect, I conclude that this pile is the viewing position from which the other piles are visible uphill. Here are some other views:
Quoting: "I guess the site is shaped like a piece of pie cut out from the hill. In the previous picture you can see one of the walls that runs up either side of the site to the top. I did not notice it when I took the picture, but this pile has a white rock to lower right in the picture. Note also the rock-on-rock in the background. Here is a detail:"
The lines of evenly spaced piles is characteristic enough of the site but I think the real clues to what is going on here are in the minor details like this rock-on-rock and the platform pile below. I think I have already written about this rock-on-rock. I hope I do not have to point out that the upper rock looks as if it might represent an animal. I think this cedar tree was planted next to the rock-on-rock and have a guess that this might be a monument to a fallen warrior. Why think that? Because there is a famous Indian battlefield in Sudbury at "King Philips Woods". Those woods are filled with rock piles and a number of rock-on-rock next to cedar trees. So I make a connection with battles - perhaps completely wrong, but it is a hypothesis worth keeping in mind.

Here are a couple more views:
Here is one more from the top of the site where the slope has leveled out a bit. You can see that the spacing between piles is consitent over the whole site. This is a key characteristic.
Quoting: "So there you have it, a very fortuitous find, a lovely site with good integrity, a new type of rock pile site emerging: the stack grid with one (or more?) blazed piles. I counted 41 piles in all. Looking back over what I wrote I see that there are basically stacks with possible viewing platform(s). There is a possibility of other types of piles - more burial like - mixed in between the stacks; alternatively these are simply damaged stacks."