Possible Shrine at Stockbridge, Vermont

Norman Muller

In April 2003, Ernie Clifford, my main contact in Vermont, showed me a fascinating stone mound site on a high plateau in Stockbridge, Vermont, at an altitude of about 2000 feet.  He had heard about the site from a hunter friend of his.  Over the following eleven years, I visited the site about five times, each visit teaching me more about the site.

The most impressive feature was a large stone mound with a large quartz cobble inserted into one face.  This mound was situated on a small knoll.

Several more trips to this site later, on a beautiful fall day, a friend and I headed west, downhill from the stone mound with the quartz, and found a interesting looking terrace formation on a knoll overlooking a small valley,  It may have measured at most about fifteen feet long.

This time, we looked at it from below, and didn't notice its connection with a large, vertically faced outcrop near where we stood when taking the photo.  In 2010 we revisited the site on a crisp fall day and decided to climb to the stone terrace just to have a closer look at it.  From the top we could look down  on the large outcrop below, which is visible to the left through the trees in the foreground.

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But what was even more amazing were possibly two recumbent standing stones on top of the terrace, the largest one in the foreground being a good meter long.

The terrace overlooked an impressive outcrop, one that Jack Steinbring, a rock art expert in Wisconsin has termed a "phenomenal attribute," meaning one that has presence. Undoubtedly the standing stone or stones, plus the terrace itself, were situated because of their proximity to the outcrop, which held particular significance to the aboriginal builders at this site.

Roadside Attraction - Dover

If you drive slowly past 249 Deadham Str. you may see this little brook coming down to the road:

A careful look, and one sees several rock piles here. All beaten down. Also:

A view from Exeter: A sacred place, possibly from the time of glaciers

post by JimP

From the Providence Journal article:

As Brown University anthropology professor William Simmons tells it, tensions in 1675 “had begun to build between Plymouth and the Massachusetts Bay Colony over interest in acquiring Narragansett land.” The Colonists feared the Narragansetts were so numerous that they could overpower the English. They formed an army of about 1,000. “The Narragansetts fortified two places,” Simmons said. “One, that hill in Exeter and another, an island in the Great Swamp.” 
http://www.providencejournal.com/news/content/20141207-a-view-from-exeter-a-sacred-place-possibly-from-the-time-of-glaciers.ece

I am sorry, Professor Simmons. While I have a great respect for your body of work, there is scant evidence for you to draw the conclusion that the Narragansett fortified, "two places" in preparation for war. First and foremost there is absolutely no evidence that the stone walls at Queen's Fort were built for defensive purposes or even in preparation for King Philip's War.

You are further perpetuating the myth of Stonewall John -- the idea that the Narragansett did not build stone walls until the English taught Stonewall John how to lay dry stones. Furthermore, you are basing your entire premise on a single reference through the filter of Nathaniel Saltonstall who wrote in 1676:

. . . Stonewall, or Stone-Layer John, for that being an active ingenious Fellow he had learnt the Mason's Trade, and was of great Use to the Indians in building their Forts, etc. (Saltonstall [1676]1913:96) 

But in 1674, during the same period of tensions leading up to the war, Daniel Gookin wrote:

But yet let me add this by way of commendation of the Narragansitt and Warwick Indians, who inhabit in the jurisdiction, that they are an active, laborious, and ingenious people; which is demonstrated in their labours they do for the English; of whom more are employed, especially in making stone fences, and many other hard labours, than of any other Indian people or neighbours. (Gookin [1674]1968:37)

So which was it? Was there only one Narragansett man who had, "learnt the Mason's Trade," and was responsible for building the stone walls at Queen's Fort and the Great Swamp Fort as tensions rose? Or were there many Narragansett and neighboring Indians who learned how to lay dry stone walls from the English? Or was masonry a skill the native people already possessed? (Did they build fish weirs from stone walls before the English taught them how? Did they build stone walls for game drive systems? Is it even logical to conclude that for thousands of years of working with stone that the Narragansett never figured out how to stack them into a wall until the English showed them how?)

Until a preponderance of the evidence finally gives us a solid date for the construction of the walls at Queen's Fort, it is simply inaccurate to conclude who built them or even that they were built anywhere near 1675. I hope someday soon you will help correct the record. The history of Narragansett masonry has been misunderstood for far too long.

Regards,
Jim Porter

GOOKIN, Daniel. [1674] 1968. Historical Collections of the Indians in New England. In Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society,  For the Year 1792. Vol. 1. Reprint, New York: Johnson Reprint Corporation.

SALTONSTALL, Nathaniel. [1676] 1913. A New and Further Narrative of the State of New-England. In Narratives of the Indian Wars, 1675-1699. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

Serpent by the Junkyard

     Every once in a while over the years, I stop and take a look at some of the rows of stones along the side of this particular road I use to avoid the traffic of Watertown CT. On this particular day I was returning home from the Waterbury DMV, just after crossing the Naugatuck River.

     I had spotted this little detail above in the stones, parked and followed what looked like a carefully made zigzag covered with a little bit of garbage in many places, but some interesting atypical of field clearing and possibly Indigenous stacking of stones on the row...

(Broken Quartz and maybe a small Manitou Stone)

(Contrasting dark stone segment with trash bags:) 

... eventually turning around where a massive pile of garbage towered above a sweet little hollow with multiple tree stands.

     I headed back south to the road and was going to head back home, but below a massive bulldozed pile of earth and stones and trees and more modern trash (where the Industrial Park begins – or thickens you might say), was a rather tall linear “stone wall” that had escaped destruction. I followed that row of stones downhill, noting some possible Indigenous Elements, a possible turtle or two, some rhomboidal stones, colorful stones including white quartz – but nothing really “spectacular.”

     It got interesting when the row was joined by another smaller row that led to some bedrock outcrops (and/or big partially buried boulders?), below which there was a semi-circular break in the otherwise more or less linear row that I had started with:

     There were other rows of stones visible in places, sometimes following the topography, sometimes not. I could look down toward the bottom at a swampy area, edged with stones, a hint or two of possible rows extending into the swamp, but I didn’t really get into there to explore, my time budget for my “walk or die” health program already shot.

     The plan was a quick getaway, but I could plainly see multiple rows of stones connecting to big boulders, a few with stones piles on them, really much more than a quick look could take in, making my list here quite incomplete…

(I came back to add: In the photo above, the Serpent is in the distance on the far right, just below that inclined line of the roadway...)

    And yes there was a Serpent here, connected to an outcrop, just below the path that became a road, a little modern steep hillside graveyard for items the transfer station down the road might charge for, big heavy old style large screen TVs, mattresses and lots of tires…

(A small enclosed area by the Serpents Head?) 

(Stones stacked along the same outcrop, 100+ feet west:) 

Flickr link:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/34580529@N04/sets/72157649639229332/

Appetizer

Professional archeologists need to address fringe ideas

A genuinely interesting blog post from a professional archeologist. Thanks to the NEARA bulletin board for finding this one.

The DeLong-Cooke Stone Structure Map 7/11

Ever see this?

Thanksgiving weekend

     On "Black Friday" while many people were out shopping in crowded malls, I spent the day alone slowly studying the ground in a cold place where the wintry wind froze my fingers. I've found many arrowheads in this place before and was pleased to get there and see that conditions were good, but the best part- no footprints from other people doing the same thing. It was kind of a long drive to get there, but worth it.
      My first find of the day turned out to be my best. I am really pleased with this arrowhead.

      Pretty quartz.

     I also found this quartz scraper.

     This arrowhead base sticking out of the sand really had my heart pumping. I hoped and hoped... but there was nothing more to it than what you can see here.

This quartz Wading River point is missing the tip. Still a decent find for me.

 

      This was what I went home with after about 4 hours of wind and cold. It was a good day and I left feeling great. It took some of the sting out of some of my disappointments of recent months.

     It had been a while since I had found a couple of arrowheads in an afternoon.

     On Sunday I visited this stone chamber in Ledyard, CT. A new place I had never even seen in photos.

A stone wall crosses a brook in Westminster

Seems like quartz is always placed strategically.

Adams Farm - Westwood

Now that winter is upon us, I am heading south for walks - as long as there is not too much snow on the ground. Last weekend, after several days of slothful post-thanksgiving lethargy, I drove south to walk around in a woods behind "Adams Farm" - an open to the public, historic farm. A pretty place indeed but without many rock piles. A lot of up and down over small pine covered knolls with lots of sand and bits of rock, in places. Went north from the entrance and was heading back to my car when I found this:

I see a faint pathway in the gap between parts of this structure. Recent?

Continuing southward, there it is:

The one "mound" I saw. I may be fixated on rectangular piles with hollows but when you are looking for them: there they are. It definitely has corners and is sparser on the inside than around the edges.

I am suspicious of isolated piles. This could have been quarrying debris. I looked around for something else nearby. There was also this (note similarity to this from Potanipo Hill):

Still not sure. I think the "mound" should count. 

I was bored with this place before finding the mound. Now, maybe I should go back there and visit every little knoll - there are probably 15 more I didn't get to, south of the entrance.

Georgia's Mountain of the Apalache Kings

From the People of One Fire, a pretty interesting account:
http://www.examiner.com/article/georgia-natives-discover-probable-royal-tombs-atop-mountain