Here is a little spot I stopped at on a whim. I drove past several times and looked longingly at the section of stone wall that is so prominent near the horizon from the road below:
After following that section of wall (it runs somewhat east-west) I walked in to this site from the north, walking south, and quickly found the first rock pile. Notice in this picture that there is a crude stone row to the left of this rock pile in the photo.
As I continued walking south, I found more rock piles, then some boulders. The site is intersected (east-west) by a recent logging trail. This picture is of an interesting boulder with rock piles nearby. There are a few rocks on top of the boulder as well as one rock next to the void under the boulder. The void itself contains an interesting rock with 3 small depressions in it that appear to be natural, yet appealing.
Then, a little further south, this arrangement. The rock on the left is something like rocks on their haunches and there is a small rock pile to the right of the standing stone.
I turned my walk back to the north when I came to a ledge of outcroppings. I walked around the outcrops and found this, which I'm not certain about in antiquity. Maybe it's the very square rock with no lichen, or the tree growing there that has pushed up some of the rocks, making them look un-natural. But the opening faces, generally, to the north.
A short distance from there, another rock pile. If you enlarge the image, you can see the boulder with the small void under it in the background, just above and a little to the right of this rock pile.
Then, this shot, which, although it doesn't look like much, speaks volumes about the site. This is the southern end of that stone row that runs the length of the entire site, except where the logging trail interrupts it. The stone row is in the middle of the plateau. The tree (soft maple, I think) is huge and is growing right in the middle of the end of that stone row. One of the stones leaning on the tree (pushed up by it is my guess) has a small depression in it similar to the ones found in the rock in the void. Just to the right of the tree there is a quartz rock in the pile.
The stone row could have easily been built a little farther to the east where it would have served well as a pasture boundary at the edge of the plateau before it goes down the ridge to the creek below. So, why was it built right smack dab in the middle of this plateau?
3 comments :
I wonder if you sat on the boulder (in the third picture) whether you would see 'vertical' sides on the piles visible from there?
I think I'll go back out and look. My initial thought is possibly not because the dead fern covering is so thick here, even if vertical sides exist, they will probably be difficult to see.
Is this part of the forest in Mormon Hollow? My friend says there are house foundations there. If so, I'd love to see pictures.
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