In Plain Sight

Efigy

 This large flat topped  boulder is three feet wide, and just over 5 feet long,  For over 50 years it has served us as a comfortable place to recline and watch the night skies. It faces the summer solstice.  The boulder is unique in that is the only one along the lakeshore that has the appearance of being shaped and smoothed. 

On the property there is also a turtle effigy, a split rock  in which has been placed  pieces quartz, and a pile of rocks. 

Red Quartz in Stone Wall

There is a long stretch of wall, which has purposeful designs featuring fairly large pieces of quartz...it would take a half-bushel basket to hold this red one.

Stone wall art

Exploring the back side of a stone wall. It begins here, at the edge of a swampy area and extends over 400 feet. .

This boulder is as large as a  Volkswagon Bug automobile. I was surprised by the row of holes drilled along its length. 

Symmetrical design in the wall. 

Quartz tucked in a niche. 

Quartz

A Unique Stone Pile

Where a stone wall might normally be located,  along a gravel road, there was  instead, a series of "stand alone" rock piles, spaced in a line, about 10 feet apart. My first thought was that the wall builder had planned to go back and fill in the spaces between each of the piles, but upon a closer look, each pile was unique and complete in itself.   The one shown here is especially interesting. The flat stone on the left must have been carried from a rock outcrop located about 1/4 of a mile to the east. Small white stones are SET  under the flat stone, and a large loaf like stone is PLACED  on top,  providing  visual balance to the remainder of the construction.  The round rocks climbing up the "back" on the right are not fitted together, but arranged so that they touch one another on  as small a surface as possible, yet remain stable. 

Ceremonial Arrangement in an Old Stone Wall

A curious arrangement in a wall near my mailbox. When I posted this on a Facebook Group page, someone posted an identical arrangement they had photographed in Rhode Island; so this is a design to be repeated, a Motif, which had shared, cultural significance.

The quartz rock has a rose color within it, and can easily be pickup up out of the niche it is set in.

A Series of Rock Piles Oct 14 2017

This is series of unique rock piles running along a ridge in a northerly direction , regularly spaced so that as you walk you can anticipate where the next pile will be.  They are spread out over almost 3/4's of a mile.  I expect if I had more time and a few less years, I could follow them for several more miles.  It appears that they have been knocked about over the years, and are buried in woodland debris. They may not be in the exact order.

Two Years Later

Today I took a longer walk through the area which I photographed two years ago. It was a bit disappointing to discover some of the rock piles or features had been run over and destroyed. Perhaps my pink ribbons had blown away. Bits of evidence showed otherwise, however.

Photo taken August 14, 2017. The beautiful bird effigy is covered over with branches cut from the tops of downed trees.
There is too much for me to clear.  But this wasn't the sad part. The sad part was finding some of the features have been totally destroyed.  The circles with quartz in the center are impossible to find under the brush.
I had been more hopeful. 

Revisiting the Rock Piles

Two years ago a forester began cutting and he was obviously going to run over everything in his path with huge equipment.  So I tied ribbons on the rock piles and asked him to not run over them. I acknowledged it wasn't my property but

hoped.
he would respect why the rock piles were important. He said he would try his best, as it was difficult to see from the top of his big equipment. I dared not go back until today, 2years later.
He had tried to give the more important piles a miss.

Where the Light Comes In

Throwback to August 2015.

 The woods have been "harvested" since this photo was taken, and many of the stones have been run over by heavy equipment, or are buried underneath the fallen branches that were never cleaned up afterwards.
Without a wide angle lens, my cell phone wasn't able to capture the scene as I first came upon it, .but you can see a few glints in the 2 o'clock position, which turned out to be an array of quartz rocks placed within rock circles or set on top of a base rock.
Magical!

Thunderbird

Overlooking The Lake

The black and white closeup illustrates the care taken to construct this effigy. In the center a round rock has been placed to hold the head in place on the supporting boulder. There are smaller stones placed on and around this feature.

Rock ring with Quartz

There are many consciously placed  rock rings lying under the Norwich woodland debris. Shown here is a double ring which outlines an oval depression.  Note the one white quartz on top right.

Wild Turkey Facing West

This  Wild Turkey shaped "perched" rock differs from a lot of other boulders dropped by the last glacier because of it's "perched" demeanor, and that it isn't buried as deeply in woodland debris.
About  3 feet tall, it stands on a large flat bolder, similar to the one in the right background.  If someone were to dislodge the several flat rocks propped against the downhill side,  it could easily be rolled  on down the hill.

Eagle Rock

Eagle head facing left, 9 o'clock, with outspread wings......carved out of top of ledge overlooking a large vein of Quartz.

This is within close proximity to two other rock carvings. Go to  THIS EARLIER POST and scroll down to the bottom two photos.

Pisgah Rock Piles

Forty years ago we bought a 10 acre wood lot about 1 mile from our house. Turns out, we never  used it, and the last time I walked there was 25 years ago. The old Hemlocks need harvesting, sadly due to Wooly Algae infestation. Today, camera in hand, we took a walk.  There are two old stone walls bordering about  2 acres  closest to the road, used as pasture over 100 years ago. Further back in the woods, however, were some interesting Rock Piles. Given that this property is located close to other sites with Native American features,   the rock piles deserve closer examination.  

A walk in the woods. 

The neighbor's Hemlock grove being managed.

Quartz in the middle of a rock pile at the base of a huge oak tree.

Large shaped stone on top of a larger flat rock striped with quartz. On the far side a triangular shaped quartz rock is tucked underneath. 

Smooth bolder with a carefully placed necklace of smaller stones along  the west side.  These stones are too small to bother with in terms of field clearing. 

Large flat stone with a circle of mid sized stone; one is quartz and faces the south west sun. 

Large stone with mid sized rocks placed around. 

Turtle Rock with rocks; one triangular shaped quartz rock facing south west.  

A very large boulder with two mid sized rocks tucked close together. 

April After the Snow Melted

With the snow melted  I could see, weaving through the woods  the remnants of an old foot path heading towards a brook which flows into the south end of The Lake. I followed it a short way and it led to an old Bent Trail Tree, which was pointing  in a 90 degree angle to the path itself. Following the direction of the tree, I came a large Rock Pile.

Bent Trail Tree

Pointing to the South West

Nose of the tree has a smooth round stone embedded inside. 

Rock  Pile: Notice at the 2 o'clock position, the two  upright stones. Flat stones are layered in a mounded pattern  through the center towards 5 o'clock. The entire area is over 10 feet in length by 15 feet in width.
The stones closest to the two standing stones are lain flat; at the near side many are placed on edge, leaning into one another.  At about 6 o'clock, there are gaps to be seen, where some of the rocks have slipped away. 

Thong Marks

View of the Brook from the Top of the Stone Pile

Large Rock Pile with Quartz

Large rock pile with quartz on top, in center , located in a deeply wooded area. 

Side view of the quartz rock. The base of this pile is a large boulder, which has been covered by at least 20 rocks. Leaves and forest debris have filled in between so it is difficult to recognize. About 35 years ago while on a hike, I met the then owner of this property. He told me that there were a great many rock piles throughout the area, and that each one had a Quartz rock in the center. He was collecting those quartz rocks to use in his new fireplace.  At the time I didn't give his remark a second thought. Today I cringe at the memory. 

Group of Three

The Logger has ended his work for the season.  Today I walked further in to a new area of The Woods, where I found a dried up spring. On the knoll overlooking the spring there were signs of purposely placed rocks: 

Two large boulders, the space between  spanned by two large rocks. 

A row of rocks There are smaller rocks placed in-between, in a row, and one perched at the far end. 

 A single rock placed on a larger boulder, "pointing" in the direction of a trail that leads down to a  spring. The spring is curious. Although it is dry this September, when flush  the water wells up and flows off in two directions, north and south. The small  brooks thus created  end up flowing down  into the lake: one on the north end, the other on the south end. 

Stone Sculpture

A rounded  boulder with a deep split near one end. The split had long ago been filled with a series of smaller rocks, carefully placed and resembling the plates on the back  of a turtle.   Three of the rocks on the right have been recently disturbed and I couldn't be sure where the "head" was originally facing. 

1/2 Circle

A stone wall,  3 feet high and  6 feet long, when first viewed from the far side,  turned out to be a curved wall in the shape of the letter J.   A strange way to clear a field!

Was the space in the middle a  deeper at one point?

Evidence of Post Contact Settlement: Update July 19, 2016: Just returned from a trip to the UK: In the highlands of Scotland I spotted  similar structures and learned that they are evidence of habitation of men who raised sheep, and were used to catch one or two particular sheep from a flock.The small flock would be driven along the wall by a Sheep Dog, and held there in a tight little group. The man would be able to grab one at a time, for shearing. So was this construct  a late 8th century when the area was first settled?  Has anyone seen something similar? 

Cummington, MA

Out for a drive today: Spotted an interesting ledge:

Stone wall on top of a Cummington MA Ledge. A  historic Hunting Blind?