Clarks Gully Blog

Madis Senner has a blog on Clarks Gully at the Southern tip of Canandaigua Lake in NY. I am putting a link to the blog on the right. Welcome, Madis!

Stone Ceremonial Landscapes

Stone Ceremonial Landscapes is a new blog by Dr. Meli. I am adding a permanent link to the right. Welcome, Dr. Meli!

A Foundation and row piles

Here is a little site I found high above the East Branch of Cold Spring Creek. It is closer to the Delaware River (West Branch) than my 'usual' exploring place, and it is right off a creek that flows down into the East Branch Cold Spring Creek.

There is a foundation near the rock piles. I found it very interesting that the foundation is built into some sort of mound, and the mortar used.



The rock piles are in two rows. The longer row is made up of about 22 piles and goes in a northwestern direction (I read it to be between 300 and 305 on the compass).

This is looking back on the first two rock piles in the long row. I believe they are both on the boulder, although it's hard to tell with the one to the right in this photo, because the boulder goes underground on the uphill side:



This is a shot looking over the larger of the two rock piles on the boulder, down the row, to the northwest:



Here is one in the middle of the row:



And this one is near the top of the rise. What seems to be a standing stone in front:



After the rise, the piles are less defined:



The second row is a north/south row. The row is shorter and the piles are smaller and built into the bank.



I was glad I found these now because in a few weeks they will be completely obscured by the bramble.

There appeared to be a point where the rows intersected, but it was hard to make out because of a logging trail just above the north-south row, as well as the northeast row becoming less distinct at that end. Overall, though, a nice site.

I found another site this day, about a quarter of a mile to the west of this site, further up the hill. I'll post details on that site at the Rock Piles blog.

Beyond the stone wall

I hiked out beyond the stone wall that has quartz and other strange stones in it. There was one cairn going up the hill:



A small one, but very nice. Climbing up the hill - mountain, really - most of the features I found were natural.

A huge outcrop inhabited by a porcupine. That is the largest pile of porcupine scat I've ever seen in my life:



Interesting limestone formation:


A split in the outcrop just behind the huge one:




I couldn't tell if the stones around the split were naturally deposited there or intentionally placed. It was too steep to try to investigate between there.

I thought this huge outcrop preceded the top of the mountain, but once I got above it, the mountain continued to rise at another outcrop, and private land. I was getting tired and thought, if I missed some cairns, they might be at the same elevation as the one I had seen on the way up. So, I headed back down the mountain, on the eastern side.

But, before that, there was this one stone on the flat before the last rise...



...and there were some 'rock on rock' structures on the flat. This one looked kind of 'fish like' to me. I flipped this picture around to get the right angle. It seems odd to have a possible fish effigy at this elevation, but the runoff from this mountain flows down into the West Branch of the Delaware River, so maybe there is some connection:



Wow, that's distracting!

Then, going down the mountain, all natural, I think, but impressive:






You might be able to see my half meter stick leaning against that stone in this picture:



When I headed back, I walked down to the stone wall parallel to the one with all the odd stones in it. Now finding that this is actually something like an enclosure, there are quite a few apple trees at the western end of the enclosure, and a swamp outside of the enclosure, to the north. The swamp seems to be enclosed by another stone wall structure.

Well, I'm having a hard time describing all of this. There is a lot in this area, near the road, and the argument can easily be made that it's all colonial. I'm familiar with something on the other side of the main road that is like a foundation. But I still get the sense of 'construction on construction' here.

Going down the other wall, a rock pile near a break in the wall. I'm always suspicious of these and this is the third one I've found in this (about 2 mile) area:



This gorgeous red rock on top of the wall:



And, another stone wall nearby (the one that is around the swamp) goes over boulder here. Although this looks like a rock pile, it's really part of the stone wall:

Some rocks were meant to be adorned...


...and some were meant to be rock piles.

Stone wall with quartz, niches, standing stones....and a piece of wood

Here's a stone wall I found that, although it looks very colonial, has a lot of different rocks in it. So far, I've only looked at about 600 feet of the wall, and mostly one side (the north side). The wall runs east-west. I numbered the first 17 notable features in the contiguous portion of the wall (there are two breaks in the wall between the main length of the wall and the corner). I ran out of numbers at 17 and continued to photograph a few rocks after 17. I tried to stick with numbering only the parts of the wall that had rocks with geology different from the majority of the stones in the wall.

The corner by the road:




The first break in the wall:




Section of wall between first and second breaks:




(all of the 3 features above, together in one photo):



Second break in wall:




The contiguous wall:



Rose colored quartz:


This is #2 (rose colored quartz) with the half meter stick:






(rock to the left of #4 above, taken the day before with no number)





Note the side profile of the standing stone to the left, in the background:




This rock is in the foreground in the picture above:




Note the stone at the top of the wall that is diamond shape, pointing down. I have seen a repeated pattern in this area where a stone is set "up and down" to form something like a pointer rock that points to a gap/space or enclosed niche-like structure below the pointer rock:






This rock is just to the upper left of the standing stone in the prior picture:








These next 2 photos are inside the 'niche' that can be seen to the left of #14 in the photo above.



I didn't number this area because I didn't see any stones of different geology here. However, this construction was interesting to me. When I moved away some of the leaves, there was still a fist sized piece of ice in the leaves here:




Close up of rock at #15:



The next two pictures are of #16 that I took the day before, without numbers. Note, in the first picture, the stone leaning against the wall on the south side of the wall. I did not get a look at that stone yet, since I was doing most of the observing from the north side of the wall.



Here it is with #16 to label this spot:


This area is to the left of #16 and has two very interesting features at the base of the wall - an odd shaped rock and a piece of wood:





Here is where I ran out of numbers:


The wall goes over a boulder or outcrop here:


Note the niche like structure where the wall goes over the outcrop:


Here is another rock of different geology:







This last picture is the only one that I'm not sure where in the sequence it goes, but I liked this because of that huge rock on top of all those smaller ones. I doubt settlers would do this:


So, if you're still looking at all these pictures, thank you! I did this to emphasize how much I really believe this wall was built by Native Americans. This is only about 600 feet of wall with all of these features, and it keeps going. I still have to go back out and follow the rest of the wall up the hill.