Monday, April 23, 2007

Route 95 Median Stone Chamber - Deadham,MA

Bruce McAleer heard about a stone chamber in the median strip of Rt. 95 (also called Rt 128) from Rick Lynch and Fred Martin. I am not clear how either Rick or Fred knew about it but Bruce, as I, scans the woods on either sides of the road as he drives along and had been looking for this chamber for some time when he finally spotted it, heading north in Deadham, after the Rt 1A overpass. You have to be looking to the left at just the right spot at just the right moment; if you blink you'll miss it. Anyway, once he located it he was anxious to go see it up close and invited me along. It turns out that the median of 128 widens to several hundred yards and it part of Deadham Town Forest, and it is accessible from the 1A overpass.

When we got there, the chamber was a bit of a dis-appointment:
Nothing very pre-historic about that. The top is concrete, poured into a mold that looks to have been built in place. The sides are dry stone construction with no mortar.

Bruce took these pictures. Here is a view back out the entrance.
According to him, this points pretty close to the winter solstice sunrise. There is no thought that this might be deliberate and ceremonial; so this seemsto be a cute coincidence.

The back of the chamber is made from a slope of dirt, with a pipe sticking out and wires sticking out of the pipe.We do not know what this little room was for, nor why it was built so much like a linteled stone chambed. It might be an interesting research project.

In the woods near this there were a number of disturbances. There were a few very scruffy rock piles, not worth illustrating, a well, and also a rectangular hole - probably of an old foundation. Here is the hole:And here is the well. It was located at the foot of a ridge of sand and the water was beautiful and clear:

3 comments :

JimP said...

I've got Red X's for all the photos in this posting. Am I the only one?

pwax said...

Somhow these photos got messed up, I posted them separately again the next day.

JimP said...

Yep, saw them -- strange little chamber. Seems more like a tunnel that was somehow filled in.