Thursday, June 20, 2024

Ahh to be young again

 Rock Piles: "Peter is excited"

A rock pile found in an imminently threatened site for clearcutting

 Reader Nathan P. writes:

Dear Contributors,

I am writing after having discovered with a couple of friends a rock pile that is in a site that is imminently slated for clear cutting, in Lincoln, MA.  I attach a photo and would very much like to share more with you, if it can help pause the planned clearcut, at least to make a site assessment of significance, on land that I understand includes or is directly adjacent to lands of the Agawam, Massachusett, Nipmuc and Pawtucket.

The mound is not near any stone wall and is clearly of intention. It doesn’t look like a recent fire pit, even years old, as it is a mound not a pit.
I can show and visit the site with you at your convenience or give you detailed directions on how to access the site using a public right of way.  I put the coordinates from Google maps below. The site itself is on land legally owned by the City of Cambridge with a Town of Lincoln conservation easement allowing public access to and in the site. So there is no legal trespassing involved.


Many thanks, 
Nathan Phillips, PhD 
617-997-1057

Friday, June 07, 2024

 Reader Nicholas P. writes (about the Westminster area):

The walls I have followed all over the area, and they are some of the most erratic and dramatic I have come across, save for some of the walls in the Nashoba lands. I’ll start with a few, and if you want more, then by all means. 

The first few I’m sending are of two large boulders, both serpentine-head like, that face each other and act as an ‘entry onto the hilltop’, with the typical snaking bodies of wall coming off of them. Walls run out of the swamp far below and seem to stop in relation to them. 



Also a few of the more notable aspects of some walls.




Thursday, June 06, 2024

A mysterious place with stacked rocks I found doesn't make sense

 A mysterious place with stacked rocks I found doesn't make sense (youtube.com)

Metal detecting around a rock pile.

Some Maps and Drawings

 This map caught my eye, got me thinking...

It got me thinking of a map from Charles C. Mann's "1493" 
and a map in Curtiss Hoffman's "Stone Prayers:"

And that got me thinking of these sort of map-like drawings
or drawing-like maps based on Champlain as well as stone wall-like fuel breaks
 and Elements of a Prescribed Burn:
More:
http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2024/06/maps-and-drawings.html