Native American and early English settlements of Redding (CT)

Via David M:

Will they talk about stone rows???

https://www.facebook.com/events/236614376471666/

LHAC Lecture Series Presents: Lonetown - Warrups, Reads The Colonial Frontier

Public

• • 

    Sunday
  • 

    4:00pm

• Archaeologist Dr. Stuart Reeve and Redding Town Historian Kathleen Von Jena will give a PowerPoint presentation on the archaeology and history of the Native American and early English settlements of Redding, specifically the Lonetown manor region, which was the first settlement in Redding and part of the western frontier of New England in the early 18th century. Please join us as Dr. Reeve and Ms. Von Jena discuss the Indian leader Chickens’ reservation, John Read’s original manor house, and other exciting findings based on their recent research. Fee: $5; Free to LHAC Members IAIS Museum @IAISMuseum The Institute For American Indian Studies is a museum focusing on American Indian culture, past and present in Connecticut and across North America. http://www.iaismuseum.org

 ·38 Curtis Road Washington, CT 06793 

(860)868-0518

(860)868-1649 (fax)

First look at piles on Hubbard's Hill - Estabrook Woods, Concord MA

Reader Johnathan Brown writes:

I've been able to go out a couple of times recently into the Easterbrooks and explored (for me) some new areas. I also revisited the site on Black Birch Hill the other day when the weather was beautiful and mild.  I wanted to get some photos before the woods were blanketed again with snow.  I'll send you a few when I get the chance, but I have to run now!  (I have attached two pics. from one of the best mounds - with a marker rock on top poking through the snow.  I used some bits of twigs to outline it for contrast and my walking stick shows up in one for scale - it's 42" long.)

  

I came across two of the beautiful granite cornerstones with an engraved "C" on each - marking the bounds of the old Kibbe farm.  They were a really nice personal discovery!  I also found a  5 foot circle of stones piled 2-3 stones high on top of another hill that I had never visited before.  It looks like there was a pasture on top at one time - so it may be related to that activity?  

For years I mostly stuck to the many paths in Estabrook and got to know those well.  My dad was familiar with some of the features within the area, but he would've been thrilled to talk to you - he was greatly interested about any Native American presence in the Concord area, as well as Thoreau's exploits.  Now I am having fun tramping the land between the paths and there is a lot to explore!  I checked out Steve Ells companion pamphlet to the map from the library - and that is great.  It's filling in lots of anecdotes that I was unaware of or had only heard in passing.

I was up Kibbe's way on Sunday, and that's when I found the granite markers.  I did see some features while making my way cross-lots down towards the Cedar Swamp, and vicinity.  Several larger erratics or exposed ledge caught my eye - one with some evidence of charcoal burn marks.  I want to find the cellar hole as well when I go back next time, maybe venturing nearer to the super-sized new house at the northerly edge of the woods.  I'll be happy to exchange information and findings with you; I find it fascinating! 

The photo of the stone circle I sent this morning was from a hill-top just North-east of the Kibbe land, bordering the western side of the Cedar Swamp. I had never been to that particular area before, and I'm sure there's more to explore.  I think it's interesting how you can look down upon the brook and swamp from the high vantage point of the hillside.  I'll bet early native people found it advantageous as well.  The circle is just slightly outside of a half acre walled pasture at the very top of the hill.  That's why I wondered about it's origin??  In fact, I could see a succession of stone walls looking North as I moved in that direction off the height of the hill.  (The area was apparently well populated in the 18th century.) I had to turn back and make my way West following the pale peach of the winter sky.  I could see other interesting features over the crest (rocks and outcrops) but the lateness of the day hurried me along, picking my way by bog and stream to the gate and my truck on Autumn Lane.

The northerly side of Black Birch Hill is full of curious items, and I'll send along some more photos as promised.  It's hard to distinguish much detail through the snow and with a flat light, but when Spring arrives we'll have to go have a look.  Upon closer inspection the other day the mounds of earth are all similar in size, many marked with prominent large stones, and there a great many scattered in the woods. It's harder to pick out some where trees have grown up, and fallen on top of others. 

I too was wondering about the placement, and whether there was any significance to the northerly cardinal direction. Also, are there any other sites in the woods on hillsides similarly situated?  It sounds like there is.  I'll keep on looking!

Upper Pauggussett, Newtown CT

There's some interesting stonework to be found here, where I lifted a few photos: http://uppergussy.blogspot.com/

(Not all of them in focus:)

(and it looks like I once found a video that appears on the blog of a "Stone Wall Breaching" that I posted, probably in indignation.) 

The Tunnel of Love, possibly a remnant of an Indian Trail:

(both sides bordered by stone, probably burned often to be kept clear...)

Diagonal line of rock-on-rocks going up a hillside. Rattlesnake Hill, Bolton MA

I went to explore the valley at Rattlesnake Hill and when I got to where the water started, there was a rock-on-rock:

Not in good shape, my main reason for wanting to get up the hillside a bit, while going back down the valley, was to get out of the deeper snow for easier footing. It turned out I kept running into rock-on-rocks in a sequence something like this:

Here are the other three:

 

 

The first of these three I only spotted because I sat down to catch my breath. So there could be others structures I did not notice, elsewhere on the slope. But I have seen this before, at a the gully that divides Proctor Hill in Littleton. I was puzzled then by the same question as now: what do these little "cairns" mark? 

I was not aware of following a trail as I walked, just of choosing a direction of least effort.

Bolton Lime Quarry

Manitou (Buffalo) Stone Song

A song about a stone: http://youtu.be/7WEKxcBYOio

More: http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/08/08/first-nations-college-calls-for-return-of-sacred-meteorite-from-alberta-museum/

A lucky day

I spent all day on Saturday hunting for Indian relics. The weather was perfect, the bright overcast conditions were ideal for trying to spot arrowheads on the ground. I drove to a place where I have had some luck and was thrilled to see that the winter storms and melting snow had washed away all my old footprints from previous visits and left a clean fresh surface with every stone plainly visible. I felt certain that I would be able to find something, perfect conditions like that inspire a lot of confidence. But after two hours of careful searching, poring over the ground, I had found nothing but flakes. In such a situation I sometimes start feeling desperate and would be absolutely thrilled to find anything at all, even the most vague fragment; that was how I was feeling on Saturday. My eyes scanned a spot, I took another step, and something told me to glance back at something my eyes had just passed over. I was elated to spot this.

This really got my heart pumping. It is the base of a rhyolite arrowhead and it is pretty big. The part that is visible is undamaged but the fragile tip end is buried in the earth. Thinking back on my finds in 2012 I can clearly remember one time when I found one like this and it was a pristine point, and another time when it turned out to be badly broken, there is no way to know until you pick it up. I spent a lot of time looking at this before picking it up, I didn't want to be disappointed. I stared at it, took nine photos of it and a short video. If any amount of wishing or hoping could have made it whole, it would have been. But it was not to be.

Well, I will take it anyway. Any find is a good find for me. I like this material and the shape is one I do not find often, I think it is called Fox Creek. Reinvigorated by this find, I spent another hour walking in the cold in this place, but I didn't find anything else. I left there and in the afternoon I met up with my friend Dave and we decided to check a couple of other places. In the first place we checked, the conditions were just the opposite of where I had spent the morning. Vegetation covered the ground, the earth was only bare in small patches. We walked a little bit but there were hardly any rocks to be seen anywhere. We both agreed, it was hopeless. As we were heading back to the car we both spotted this at the same time.

Isn't that incredible? It is actually on top of a little plant, it is sitting on top of the surface of the ground. It looks like it was just dropped. I can't really understand it. This was near the base of a gentle slope so maybe it eroded out of the surface and then tumbled down the hill a little? I think this is what is called a Jack's Reef, it is my first like this. The base is damaged. It was resharpened in ancient times, it is super thin. I have spent a lot of time in this place but never found one like this there before. I am really happy with this find.

Dave and I got back in the car and went to my very favorite spot. Again, it was grass and weeds everywhere, tough conditions. But the little bare patches had been pounded by recent rains. We walked for a while and I pointed out to Dave a rock that looked just like an arrowhead. I picked it up and immediately wanted to kick myself for not taking a picture first- it really was an arrowhead! A Squibnocket Stemmed point made of rhyolite. Cude and chunky- but these local materials took a lot of skill to work.

I spotted this nearby amongst the clumps of grass. It was easy to spot.

Again, in a familiar place, a new and unfamiliar shape. It is argillite, I think it is what is called a Wading River. Dave found a broken piece of a large blade, showing nice flaking and made from a nice material. Here are all the finds from that site from Saturday.

We went to another place and looked there until it got dark but didn't find anything. Well, I can't complain! It was a lucky day and also atypical for me- no quartz and no triangles. Here is what my finds looked like after I brought them home and rinsed the dirt off. What a great day.

Ironwork farm showing a film about Praying Villages (Acton, MA)

via Monotomy Maps:

March 14 7PM South Acton Congregational Church.

http://www.ironworkfarm.org/

Brandywine Creek State Park - stone walls

DC writes:

...and also of a stone row in Brandywine Creek State Park, and a link to some photos of that wall I took. Here is the link to the photos:

http://www.relicsoftheancients.com/DE_brandywine_creek_state_park.htm

     The professor says that the historian for the Park claims these were built by "Italian stone masons" in the 1880s or so. That made me laugh. The Italian stone masons were artists, they would have been totally aghast that someone would suggest they had built such rude stone rows (not even walls) in the middle of nowhere!  There are walls, built for the DuPonts, in that area but they are very different from what I have found in the woods. FWIW, my great grandfather was a stone mason and immigrated from Italy in 1880 to the US. I never met him but I imagine he would be quite disappointed if anyone suggested these type of rows were his work. :~) BTW, I am not knocking the people who DID build these walls, but I think they had a different purpose and mindset, and there is artistry in what they did as well, but it is different.

The Island in Bowers Brook with Rock Piles - Barton 3/Bare Hill Pond Area, Harvard MA

As I wrote previously [here], I was able to get out to the island in Bowers Brook to take a closer look at the rock piles.There are several different rock outcrops in this area where the brook opens up and feeds the pond to the south and, even when we parked on Under Pin Hill Rd, there was an outcrop there with its own small items of interest:

 

That is Rt 110 in back there. 

We crossed the road, then crossed the frozen wetland, and got to the island. At last.

 

The original picture from a distance was surprisingly good. Compare it to this:

FFC pointed to the quartz in the most prominent middle pile.

Note there is another rock pile beyond the one behind FFC. That makes four in a row and the impression is they would be visible and evenly dividing the view from over there on the western bank of Bowers Brook - where there seem to be several places to see the whole panorama.
Here is a detail of the quartz:

 We also noticed a little aperture (the quartz is on the right at the edge of the photo):

One of the smaller piles also had an interesting detail. It is something like a Manitou stone, hanging over a small niche in the pile.

Also the small rocks scattered around did not seem entirely innocent - meaning they had some structure too. It is a bit visible here:

and here. Note the diagonal line and another line going to the  right of the tree (in the foreground) and straight  back to the pile just visible in that direction.

FFC, in his usual way, poked around and noticed a few more buried rock piles at the southern edge of the outcrops. Here is the view south:

And some of the other rock piles:

A big rock-on-rock next to the main brook:

A pretty place we probably won't see again and leave it now, home to the beavers.

Coker Creek, Cherokee National Forest

" In the Cherokee National Forest, Coker Creek winds its way through a beautiful landscape in Monroe County. The meandering stream eventually ends with a series of spectacular cascades known as Coker Creek Falls before joining the Hiwassee River...

...Several books also reference a Cherokee princess named Coqua Bell (also spelled "Coco" Bell), a woman who attempted to make peace between the Cherokee and the white settlers.
"Some say Coco Bell was the woman who was wearing the gold nugget around her neck that attracted the white man to this area. The legend says she is buried nearby under a mound of stones. If you want good luck, you will add a stone to the pile." Reece added, "But if you take a stone away from her grave, the legend says you will be cursed with bad luck."

 

The above photos come from Brenda Stevens, a high school classmate of mine who now lives in Florida. She writes: "" Oh wow..it just hit me..the whole thing...being where Coco Belle was laid to rest, her burial place, to be blessed with the opportunity to lay a rock down...reverence personified..."
The text is from WBIR 10News reporter Jim Matheny in Knoxville TN, accessed at:

http://www.wbir.com/dontmiss/145110/207/Why-do-they-call-it-that--Coker-Creek 

(where there is a little bit of video from the Creek...)

And then there's this:

Princess Betsy Coqua Bell was born 1764 in Pa, and died 1846 in in Ala. in route to TX. She married John Coker, son of Joseph Coker and Mary Nelley Aldridge.
 Notes for Princess Betsy Coqua Bell:
One favorite tale of Coker Creek Tn. involves Coqua, an Indian princess who did her best to settle periodic armed battles between the whites and Indians. She is also known as Coco Bell, Coyuu Bell, Cocoa Bell and Coker Bess. Later, she eventually married John Coker and supposedly became known as Betsy Coker. Princess Coqua was revered in this community and is said to have been buried in a special grave site, underneath a mound of stones and that she left instructions that anyone who wished to enjoy good luck should toss a rock onto her grave - but should anyone remove a stone from her grave, he or she would suffer a lifetime curse.
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