Wall at Vera Cruz

By Geophile

At Vera Cruz, Pennsylvania, eastward from the Oley Hills site, on a related set of hills, lie the remains of jasper quarries, mined from as far back as 9,000 years ago. This jasper was suitable for spears, but not for arrowheads, so its usefulness lessened once the bow and arrow made their entrance in the east.

The pictures above and below are stones containing yellow jasper (which turns red when heated properly) at the quarry pits at Vera Cruz. I'm not sure how much remains these days, as sites like this are advertised on the web by rock hounds who do not hesitate to take what they want from places like this.


A wall runs right up to the quarry area. Some jasper stones are incorporated in it. Was this wall a kind of trail at one time, meant to lead people to the mining site? But the reason I thought to post these pictures here is the presence of red stones in the wall. In the picture below you can see a small red stone on top of the wall near the left edge of the picture.


In the picture below you can see a conical red stone on top of the wall and what appears to be a flat red stone in the wall below it. As it runs away from the quarry area, the wall is interrupted by the road, but I don't know if it once continued or if parts of it continue further on.


Below is a picture of the end toward the quarry, looking away.

One source told me there are several other jasper quarries in the line of hills that includes the Oley Hills, one only a couple miles from the main Oley Hills site. The same long line of hill groups is known to contain radioactivity, and is part of the notorius group of landforms known as the Reading Prong, known for problems with radon in basements. How did all these geological factors factor into the vision the site builders had of the sites on these hills?