Sunday, July 29, 2007

Some of the oldest trees in Concord, MA, and a copper mine

A red oak with FFC for scale:
A white oak:
I pit in an outcrop, a known copper mine in the Spencer Brook Valley of Concord:
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4 comments :

Geophile said...

Great trees! Oaks take long to grow, and I think white oaks take longer to get big than red oaks do. We're talking hundreds of years.

Both look as if they once stood in a cleared area and the woods grew up around them. Causes the lower branches to die and drop off. But you probably know all that.

Think what the woods were once like, with chestnuts as big as 6 feet in diameter, and huge old oaks. No wonder the bison could wander through the wood. Not much sun could get through to encourage undergrowth. Huge flocks of passenger pigeons, groups of elk, dens of wolves. It was a different world.

7:13 PM
pwax said...

I read recently (in "1491...") that the vast passenger pigeon flocks were a bi-product of some other ecological disaster brought about by the Europeans. There are very few passenger pigeon bones in the campsite debris studied by archeologists, indicating that the large numbers of birds were a recent phenomenon.

I wish they would try to bring back the passenger pigeon. They ought to be able to find some decent DNA and use Mourning Doves. Ah well, I'll settle for the Whooly Mammoth.

10:20 AM
stonepilewhisper said...

Weston looks like a fascinating area. Thanks for sharing the photos. That sentinal pile is unusual. The copper mine is also interesting. Is there any evidence that Native people collected copper there?

12:33 PM
Geophile said...

I read that, too. Interesting ideas he has. May or may not be true.

8:28 PM

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