2016 Year In Review

I leave it to other authors to summarize their year. For me it was a year of mounds. So I am going to post them, month by month. I sincerely hope this makes the point that mounds, especially rectangular ones with 'hollows' are to be found everywhere expressing variations on the same theme.

January:
Hammonasset Hassanamessit:

This was the best of the year. Tall without hollow or rectangle. Maybe cuz it was on the Bllackstone not the Merrimac? I note how trails are visible from mound to mound (there were two others, not shown).

Callahan State Forest Framingham:

Long "eyebrows" - also not rectangular and without hollows. These simply appear to be features on a horizon. Not sure, it was behind an electrified fence. Similar ones across the road on "Gibbs Mountain".

Also from Callahan State Park, an old favorite:

This one is rectangular and has two hollows. A couple's grave.

February:
George's Hill, Upton:

A degenerate rectangle. Only visible because of the snow.

Warren Brook, Upton:

Another rectangle with a hollow. Lots of stuff in this area.

March:
I was pursuing this search strategy: go as close to the sky as you can get where the water still flows.  I used this for most of the year.
One of several large messy mounds from the high brook valleys of Harvard, MA

This is the conservation land between Bolton Rd and East Bare Hill Rd.

Davis Rd, Acton:

This was a "good spot" sixty feet from the road. The viewing conditions were good. This one was rectangular with a hollow.

Parker Hill, Fitchburg:

 

Rectangular with two hollows. Sometimes these guys get pretty decrepit. But you can see it clearly enough. Another couple, lost in time.

 April: No "mounds" this month.

May:
Gates Ln, Stow: [threatened by development]

A two part mound. Considered as one, it would be rectangular with a missing portion in the middle.

Blodgett Hill, Merrrimac NH:

Kinda rectangular, kinda with hollows. A mess. Pretty subjective.

Hopping Brook, Hopkinton [threatened by development]. A big one:

And many other wonders:

A classic mound with hollow.

Aww! Lady Slippers:

 

June:
Out by Little Wachusset, on Brown Hill, Princeton:

Kinda wanted it to be rectangular with a hollow. But it was not.
  
Sudbury State Forest, visiting old friends:

 But now I see these as not only built into an outcrop, but also holding several hollows.

July:
Mathew Howes is also concerned about Hopping Brook:

 

 That is the main "burial" behind him.

August was barren [I was on vacation too.] 

September:
Warren Brook Cons. Land, Upton [highly recommended site]:

Another messy rectangle.

October:

Concord, MA [Boaz Brown cellar hole]

A lovely triangular mound. No hollows. Across from cellar holes, this is suspicious.

North Brook, Berlin:

Rectangular with hollow.

November:

Classic Leominster State Forest:

 

And a glimpse of the old favorites on "middle" Manoosnoc:

Rectangular, with hollow(s).

Codman Hill, Harvard:

Another of the large smeared rectangles from upper brook valleys of Harvard.

Brown Rd, Harvard:

Maybe a bit of a rectangle and a bit of a double hollow. This is also from a high brook valley of Harvard, but not the same large rectangular smear that we have seen before.

Northern Gardner, Wilder Brook:

 

A big smear, with a hollow.

December:

Mound in high valley in Carlisle MA:

  

Same idea but from Wolf Brook, Townsend (and more overgrown):

 

  

Last field trip of the year, by invitation of Sydney Blackwell and Gail Coolidge to Harvard, MA

A large messy pile downhill west of Bolton Rd [I think I found this before.]

This is located in the same way as the one from Carlisle, just above. This is a classic small rectangle with hollow (and possibly a tail):

There were three like this (but worse off), here at the very highest point of the brooks that run down to Corn Rd, past "Above the Falls".

Then how about this outstanding, long mound, much like the Blood Hill "J" but smaller. This was behind private houses and I never could have gotten there without help.

[Gail C. in the foreground].

A great end to the year.