Tuesday, July 31, 2007

A new site in Weston (part 1)

I have a new site to describe and have been busy processing the photos. Here is my description:

I saw a green spot on my topo map of Weston, showing a flat swampy area with a few hills. I somehow never noticed this place and went out today hoping to find conservation land there. Sure enough, at the end of a small road, what could have been a driveway to some of the large houses all around in that suburb, I saw a trail with the Weston trail markers:I went in and walked around. I was pessimistic about finding anything, but less than 10 minutes later I saw what I assumed was an isolated rock pile. I thought: "I won't count this unless I see some others nearby". But there was another, and another. I walked up over a little rise and ...woah! A big pile:
Now I want to tell you that there were all kinds of rock piles around this large one and it was hard for me not to imagine it as a central platform for viewing. There were smaller piles in every direction, some only a few feet from the large pile, twenty yards away, and still others breaking the horizon along the higher points in every direction. As a little bowl, this certainly made me think of calendar sites. But more specifically it reminds me of the major sites at the XXXXX in Leominster and the Moosehorn in North Salem: big piles mixed with little ones in a highly organized landscape.
Here are some of the nearby piles to the east and southeast:The last shows how the slope rises gradually in that direction. At the highpoint there, there are a few more piles.
Somewhat to my confusion there was a second large pile only twenty yards away from the first big one. This one was covered in saplings and seemed to be in less good shape:
Most of the piles visible from the first platform would also be visible from this one. In the end, I located two others for a total of four larger platform like piles, with these first two in the central depression of a hill, with another off to the west side and another off the side to the south, not visible from the others. In some cases these different platforms allowed views of the same things and in other cases of new things that could not be seen from the others. Perhaps what can be seen from where is irrelevant but this was what I was thinking about as I walked around. Here is another of the larger piles:Some of the smaller piles off to one side of the hill were only visible from here. By contrast, at the highest point of all, was the most prominent pile. It would have been visible from at least three of the platforms. Wonderful first view and then coming up to it:
Clearly a very "sentinel" pile and not at all what you expect to see in Weston.
[To be continued...]

2 comments :

Anonymous said...

I found a very similar pile in Beverly, MA. A bit into the woods behind the house. But with much more ridged stones, granite naturally.. Anyone seen anything like that?

Anonymous said...

These rock piles are likely Indian graves. could be trouble. artwiggi @yahoo.com