Liberty Square - Boxboro

I explored back here when my kids played soccer on the playing fields. Went again, remembering I had not been as far north as possible. I expected to see wall bulges - carefully enclosed rock piles included in a stone wall - and thought here was a new one (below the word "LIBERTY"):

 (See the lighter rocks at the corner?)

A rather nice structure.

Nearby was a more legitimate mound, if badly obscured by debris:

This and a few of the other "usual suspects", convince me that wall bulges are not just for keeping fields tidy. 

wall bulges are a common feature in the woods behind Liberty Square and I recall another from the woods down one exit on Rt 2, at Newtown Rd. I have posted a few in this blog.

So then we go down the way bit (south) and can see another large mound across the valley:

We have been discussing this in comments (here), so let's have a look:

The first picture in this group shows some structure down in the water. It is quite composite and, seen from the last picture, another example of a wall bulge - telling us almost nothing. 

A bit further south, I was up against a road or driveway and some houses and rounded a ridge to get to where water began draining to the south. Noticed a small pit shelter dug into the sand:

Seen from above, looking past another small pit.

At the very highest point (of water flowing south, next to a road) there was a small site. Visible from that pit structure.

A bit of a small hollow in that one.

Then I was tiring, and tried to head out. There were odds and ends of pretty things throughout. Boxboro never disappoints:

More on Westford's Grassy Pond rock pile

Via Don McIver:

See clip below:

http://westford-cat.vod.castus.tv/vod/?video=1dfcba38-3f58-4b6b-9c44-255bbaef4159&nav=recent

Oman Tombs

from a friend at work:

http://www.bing.com/images/search?&q=Bat%2c+Al-Khutm%2c+and+Al-Ayn%2c+Oman&qft=+filterui:photo-photo&FORM=wsbs01

Easy to miss the point

It is easy to look at a picture like this

and wonder: "Why would a farmer do that?"

But it is the wrong question. The correct question is: what is it?

(Arguably) At the top of Heath Hen Meadow Brook

Here is a spot on the topo map of Boxboro I am drawn to, because I am looking at maps trying to figure out how to get into this bit of woods at the top of Heath Hen Meadow Brook.

This is a rare occasion that I am able to see something from the satellite image. If I zoom in on the cross hair in the above, I see:

which really does look like a big rock pile. Now I am even more curious to get to this spot.

Howard Brook, Northboro

If I don't blog about this, I am going to forget. So you see that brook going uphill into the "Fish and Wildlife" area southwest of Mt Pisgah? I thought it was a place likely to have mounds and likely to have structures where the tributaries converge. Went in and, somewhere uphill from A, I decided to get back down to the brook [the feet are always betraying me and pulling me uphill even when I know I should stay next to the brook and go uphill along the brook] leading me to explore an inter-brook area near A (standing stone, a couple piles, faint hints). Then I swung deliberately uphill to around B, where I started traversing right to left (east-to-west) across the tops of the different brooks until I got to C. There, there was a hint of a pile and, one thing leading to another, a mound just south of C. Then on down the brook to D where there was another mound [one I pictured recently with "sluice ways" in the brook] and across to yet a different tributary at D2, where there was another similar mound. Then back south, downstream to the car.

At A Heading down to the brook:

In a little wet pocket:

 

At A between the brooks:

Interesting:

Noticeable standing stone:

 In the distance:

I am astonished I did not notice that chunk of quartz until now, looking at the pictures. There were a number of small structures in an area between the brooks.  

Now let's get up to C (skipping occasional other things)

I noticed this digression in the wall:

Looking around, there was a rock pile directly out from this place in the wall. (Looking back):

Then you could see other things off to the side running in parallel with the wall, making this above pile one of a series of 'satellites' above a large mound (here we are looking back now towards the wall):

Now over to D (I showed this previously):

As noted previously (here), this looks across the brook to a larger pile. It seemed huge at first because I had been seeing only low ground piles during the earlier walk. So here it is, with other features behind it:

Here is the one in back:

Looking back from the valley of the next little brook (upstream from D2)

Continuing downstream (below D2 I guess)

[Walking through the gap seems pretty evidently indicated, given the trail through there.]

And down to another mound next to that brook:

Closeup:

It reminds me of a mound next to a brook at the top of the Falulah (being deliberately vague):

I note that most of the interesting features are on the west side of the brooks.

Effigy at the top of Falulah Brook

Rocky Bottom Creek Serpent Wall take 2

From Tommy Hudson

Hobbomocko's Shrine (VT)

https://archive.org/details/cu31924028853624

Massachusetts Cultural Council Events

http://www.massculturalcouncil.org/

Secret Healer Episode 1 (Korea)

Negwegon Stone Piles - Michigan

Another video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MzymULJ6Hk

"Stone Piles Sasquatch Burial Ground" - the video

But why "sasquatch"?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Meo0alD3PYQ

Rectangular Pools in a Brook - at the meeting of small tributaries of Howard Brook, northern Northboro

We cross (west to east) into the valley of a brook. Looking down, we see a large mound.

Let me call attention to the rectangular pool of water on the left in the above picture.
Here we are looking back upstream:

Here we are looking downstream. Note the "4 in a row" feeling looking over towards that large rock pile. Also note the smaller rectangular pools of water, like a system of sluices.

Beyond the large pile, there are a couple of other piles, and another valley with a small tributary. Over there, there is a similarly placed mound but more decrepit than the one here.

We'll come back and look at some details later. 

A guy at work was talking about leaching acorns and about tanning skins as reasons to want a pool of water. I do not think this place is a mill but what are pools and sluices?