New Site, No Photos

By Geophile

Well, by rights I should have some nice pictures to post here of a lovely little stone site in a low area that included three springs, which my spouse and I spotted from the path during a hike. We were up in Monroe County, PA, not far from the Scotrun and Railroad Drive sites, but further from any roads. There were a couple of short walls including one that was sort of hairpin shaped, a boulder with stones on it that led to a short tailing-off pile off one side, and three good rock piles. There may once have been more to the site where a railroad bed, now the path, goes through one side. On the other side of the railroad embankment, a low wall comes down the hill at a slant toward the site. It is certainly clear that no farming of any kind was ever done there. It is stony and uneven and wet, with nice native wildflowers and ferns.

I should have pictures but my camera chose this opportunity to turn into a stone, at least in the sense of taking pictures just as well as a stone would. So all I have for now is this short report. Sorry.

U-shaped structures - from the Ozarks

From reader Gary:I’m seeking ideas concerning the age and purpose of some U-shaped arrangements of piled stones I know of in the Ozark Mountains. One U is about 20 feet across, another about ten feet, and there are at least two smaller ones. All seem to be connected. (Diagram attached.) There may be others hidden under vegetation or soil.

Each U has an opening facing the southwest. The rocks are piled about a foot or so high. The topsoil is now about four inches above the level at which the stones were originally placed. The exposed portions of the stones, many of them limestone, have darkened. (They seem darker than stones in an unrelated stone fence a half mile away put up by a farmer around 1910.) Today, the site of the U’s is overgrown with vegetation including old sugarberry trees, one of which has grown up through one of the stone walls.

The U's are on a point of land at the intersection of two small dry creeks. The land is about four feet above the creek level. The creeks have water only during good rains. Can the U's be dated by the amount of the topsoil that has formed along the rocks? The soil was probably not brought in by flooding; the creeks are short and I've seen water over this land only once in 30 years. I believe the soil was created mainly by decaying vegetation. Or can the U's be dated by the darkness of their exposed surfaces? The unexposed parts are quite pale in comparison.

What would have these U's been used for? Osage Indians hunted this area circa 1550 to 1815. Cherokees used the area c.1800 to 1825. White frontiersmen began hunting in the area c.1800, but these formations look more Native American. Could they be remains of hunting blinds? Bison, elk and deer would have traveled these creek bottoms. Could the smaller U's be fireplaces? I've also heard some nomadic hunters used a base of piled stones for their hide wickiups or wigwams? Any ideas?

Stone Mounds for Vision Quest

By Geophile

Most people have experienced moments when a certain point on the landscape seems to activate something within us. Places of spirit appeal even to modern Western people because of the feelings of awe and wonder they evoke. Jane Goodall speaks memorably of a waterfall within the territory of the chimpanzees she studied and how they would go there and gaze in wonder, showing signs of having a religious or at least spiritual experience. The strong sense of the spiritual in certain places on the landscape was especially significant in societies where all or most needs are provided by the surrounding portion of the earth. These special places provided opportunities for communion with the landscape and with the living things that are a part of it.

Building rock piles is one activity sometimes performed by people doing vision quest and trying to connect with a spirit or spirits said to dwell at these special places. Last evening while doing a search, I ran across information about rock mounds near a waterfall in Oregon, Susan Creek Falls. The sign there spells out the connection between rock pile making and the seeking of a spirit helper. In a paragraph on these falls, one outdoor website says "Another quarter mile up the trail are the Indian Mounds. One of the rites of manhood for Umpqua boys was to fast and pile up stones in hopes of being granted a vision or spiritual powers. Also called the Vision Quest Site, the site still holds stacks of moss-covered stones in an area protected by a fence."

For pictures of a couple of the stone mounds, see here and here. It would be interesting to learn where the idea that these particular piles were built as part of vision quests came from.

Stone wall in Ogilvie Woods n.w. Weston, MA

An open invitation from George Patternson

George extends an open invitation:

Please allow me to introduce myself. I am 51 years old and I live in Southborough and Falmouth Massachusetts with my wife and son. I was educated at Bentley College and Suffolk University . I have spent my professional career in the banking ;most of those years with Wells Fargo Bank. Two years ago, I started my own company, Patterson Management Co. and signed a partnership agreement with the company below. I have been a member of N.E.A.R.A. since 2006.

Although my formal training was with a rifle, I have spent most of my adult life with a bow and arrow, exploring the woods of Central and Western Massachusetts. I have become a student of the land and how its features,contours and structures influence the movement of game. For the past 10 years, I have noted and documented some unusual structures around the edges of Little Crane Swamp.

Last year, I learned of the work of Curtiss R. Hoffman Ph.D., People of the Fresh Water Lake – A Prehistory of Westborough Massachusetts (Peter Lang, 1990). This book is a result of 15 years of research. To date, 73 prehistoric sites have been found within Westborough; 25 of them were tested under his supervision. The book describes Westborough archeological sites in Cedar Swamp , Charlestown Meadow, Lake Chauncey and Lake Hoccomonco and Westborough Country Club. Dr. Hoffman presents archeological evidence of prehistoric peoples over the past 9000 years. Unfortunately, most of these sites were excavated in the central and southern areas of Westborough. There were very few in the northeast area of the town and none where Crane Swamp and Little Crane Swamp are located.

Again, I would be delighted to guide anyone affiliated with N.E.A.R.A. to these sites for your further research. Most of the sites are easily accessed from walking trails and are within 15 minutes of paved roads.

Thank you,
George

Cell: 508.561.4579

gpatterson@mortgagemasterinc.com

Boston Globe version of the Nipsachuk rock pile story

[Click here]
Thanks to reader Tim M. for the link.

Inukshuk cropping up like grafitti

[Click here]

Stone Pile Gap - Georgia

[Click here]

Rock Pile - Weston MA

Oglilvie Forest in Weston MA

This is the northwest most place in Weston MA, a diagonal of higher land at the edge of a wetland and running northeast-southwest. So the outward view along this slope is to the northwest. I have been in there exploring before and know that it is a place with scattered rock piles. One at the entrance:
I don't know what to make of this one. So close to the road. Nothing else like it around. It seems not ceremonial.

I also remember rock piles on the bedrock outcrops: and also remember a few rock piles scattered in the pine saplings, isolated. But I thought it would be worth going back to take a look and found one small site along that northwest facing slope at the edge of the wetland.

At first I saw a single pile and thought: this is a genuine pile but it needs to be in the context of something else. I never trust isolated rock piles. So I looked around carefully and after a moment and a few feet uphill I found another very simple rock-on-rock with a line of larger rocks leading uphill from there.This suggested to me that a viewing position might be uphill at the termination of this line.

So then as I walked around I kept in mind that I was still in places that would have been visible from that higher point on the slope. And I continued to look outward from where I found the first pile and mostly along the slope at the same level until I did find two or three more piles.
(I had to step on this one to know it is there. So I peeled back a little moss and next time it will be slightly visible. I was going to do this with another and then realized it was next to a path. The rule is: no cleaning of rock piles near a path.) I think this is a Sudbury Valley Trustees path
The piles are to the left of the path in this picture.

This handlful of structures in one place on the slope is the closest I have seen to an organized site over in this conservation land. I think it is the remnant of a kind of marker pile site.

Tim MacSweeney passes along a turtle shaped rock pile from Queensland

[Click here]

Rock Pile in the Andes

By Geophile

This is way out of our area, but it does involve a rock pile, and since we're coming into the weekend, a little diversion may not hurt. Here is a site for a museum in Argentina. This link is for a particular exhibition that includes a rock pile. It involves on of those frozen child sacrifices in the Andes. To see more pictures, click on see more images. For more fascinating but somehow creepy pictures of frozen children, then click on The Llullaillaco Children from the same site (and then "see more images" to the left).

I 'm feeling a little aversion as I post. Some groups are protesting the exhibition. If anyone thinks this is inappropriate, I'm willing to remove it.

A few good views

If I told you that hillsides facing Wachusett (main hill in lower left of map) tend to be good places to find a certain type of rock pile site and you look at this topo, then I hope some possibilities stand out. If I told you that there are rockpiles scattered all along the east side of that body of water on the upper right then would you say: well obviously you ought to go..... Well yes you are right and I do not know why I never thought of it before but I will go check it out ASAP.

Goodbye to West Sterling

Well this is the last post I am going to do about the site I first mentioned on Monday. It is nice to get a view of the area where I was out hunting for rock piles: Looking down the power lines you see one rise in the near-ground and another one in the far-ground. All of rock piles I showed come from the valley between here and that first near-ground rise. They are over to the right of the power lines in this picture. I walked back out to the left of the power lines and found a few odds and ends on the way out. I was trying to get back to my car which I parked in a mostly deserted gun club parking lot. I saw plenty of sign of gun shot practise as I started my walk: deer decoys shot to smithereens and little hunters blinds. I thought to myself that I would not want to be in there when people were practising using their guns. Then, of course, during my walk the gunfire started. First some rifles and then some louder booms that sounded like shotguns. Luckily they seemed to go on for a while and then stop for about 10 minutes. Each time they started I would sort of wince and wonder what kind of advanced warning, if any, you would get before a stray bullet caught you in the woods. Would you hear things wizzing bye in the air? Twigs snapping off? Anyway, none of that happened. In fact I was pretty sure I was in a State Forest and was not too worried. But I took advantage of a pause in the firing to work my way around to the side where I could get between the guns and some housing. I was confident no one would be firing in that direction. And that way I got back to my car.

More fun stuff from West Sterling

Also with respect to previous posts: Here were several examples of rock piles on support boulders, built as if to look out over the drop off towards the wetland in the east and southeast. They look similar. And here is something I would not have noticed if I did not happen to stand on the right rock looking back towards the stone wall:See the faint line of rocks? And here was one of the prominent boulders. Nearby structures gave the impression of being built in order to be seen from this boulder: Note the breakage and positioning of rocks on the left side of the boulder. Here is a view of them from above, standing on the boulder: See how the little rock fragments line up and also line up with the crack in the outer rock they connect to? What about the direction also indicated by the edge of the rock at the very top of the picture? Here is a pretty old white oak and a repurposing of rocks from the nearby stone wall. And here is a particularly nice structure which I saw near the end of my walk in West Sterling. Note the wedge.Note also the way the edges of the pieces of rock are lined up. So much of this site suggested directionality.

More pictures from West Sterling

With respect to the previous to the previous posts about West Sterling:
(just trying to capture the mood)

etc.

Two Headwaters Stone Piles

A new rock pile blog about piles in Broome County NY near Chenango County. [Click here]. The serpent-shaped rock pile is impressive.

Update on Turner Airport Runway Site

By Geophile

A meeting was held last evening to decide what was to be done in the case of the site threatened by an airport runway in the town of Montague, Mass, originally mentioned in this blog here. A good outcome so far: an article in the Reporter today states "Construction on a new runway at the Turners Falls Municipal Airport will be put off until next spring to resolve whether a hill topped by stones in the path of the proposed runway is a sacred American Indian site that must be protected." Well done, all who spoke up for the site!

Click here for the full article.

Some videos. Sorry for the poor quality:

A visit to West Sterling, MA

There is lots of nice looking un-explored woods out there and I wanted to go back to a part of Leominster State Forest where I had seen some rock piles from the road. But I ended up going somewhere else and found a rather extensive site of low simple rock piles. The piles were built almost exclusively on support boulders, with many single rock-on-rocks and apparently many piles designed to be visible from the tops of large boulders. I saw lots of little lines of piles or rocks lined up with boulders. I'll explain. But I should also mention why I am publicizing this site and also tell about my little adventure with the sounds of gunfire.

First off, this site is a bunch of very simple rock piles where in most cases you could easily see that the rocks are not enough to hide anything. There would be little reason to destroy them for the "treasure hunting" kind of idle curiousity. At the same time, someone actively hostile to rock piles would probably not bother to hoof it out to Sterling then walk 1/2 hour into the woods, just to knock over some rocks. So I believe the risk to the site is low. In any case the site is somewhat remote and there is a greater possible benefit to someone going out and looking at this site for themselves than risk of someone going to be malicious. Here are some of the nicer piles I saw in there:
Note the smaller stones in front and in back of the rock-on-rock. They could have fallen into this position or they could be deliberate.There were lots of pleasant little groupings in the woods:which I tried to make videos of (see a later post). Also a couple of examples where it seemed the rock piles either led up to a larger boulder or surrounded a larger boulder. I got the feeling the piles were built to be visible from these larger boulders. Here for example is a view over a pile to a boulder that had other piles surrounding it on the downhill side.
And here is one of a pair of low lines of rocks that pointed back towards this same boulder but from farther away.
You can sort of make out a bit of the gray of the large boulder. This boulder had a few other interesting things about it (see a later post) but it was only one example at this site. For example look at his boulder and the cluster of small structures that lines up with it in the foreground:
Here is a closeup of the little line of structures:I took lots of pictures and videos, which I'll post later.