A mishmosh of things

I didn't get out rock pile hunting over the holiday weekend, but got out for a quick hike on Tuesday. I found a few things "here and there", all on the same one hour hike. So, here are some photos.

An outcrop with odd features. To the left:


Walking around to the right of the outcrop, this overhang was in the "back" compared to the last photo:

Then, some rock piles just in front of the outcrop. They were hard to make out with all of the greenery coming in. I believe this is a Manitou stone:

This was just off to the right of the Manitou stone and set back a little:

Further up the hill was a standing stone, but I am not sure if this is natural or was placed upright like this:

It's pretty thick:


And I'm always suspicious when I find smaller stones placed at the base of an upright stone like this:


One rock pile I was able to photograph, not far from that large upright stone:

It seemed like there were more rock piles around up there, but they were so covered in leaves and so vague, I didn't bother to take any pictures.

Then, at the top of a rise, almost like a large hump, at the very peak of this hill, was a lone rock pile. This was, I think, the nicest one I found this day:


But, nearby and down the rise, I also found evidence of barbed wire in some trees and then one short piece of stone row, but it was not in the same line as the barbed wire and it didn't seem to form a "square":

Just, overall, a confusing area. There was water way up there, too, somewhere near 2000 feet in altitude:


But that is what I've been running into a lot lately.

More

Here's a link to another article. This one is from the NY Times archives, May 1, 1896 and is entitled "An Old Indian Wall Found". Click here for the link.

Quote of the day

“It’s the general attitude of the American people,” Olafson commented. “We’re lucky the pyramids are in a backward country like Egypt. If they were in the U.S., they would have been dismantled for railroad ballast or bridge abutments by now.” This quote is from the West Virginia Division of Culture and History website, Archives and History, Native Americans. The article is entitled "Smaller Parts of Mystery Walls Reported Unharmed" by James A. Haught. For a link to this article and a list of articles about stone construction and mound construction in West Virginia, click here.

Here is a quote from another article at the same web page: "Just across the Ohio River, from near the Engle run stop of the B. & O. railroad, on a hill on the McKnight farm in Washington County, Ohio, is a paved stone platform. This platform pavement, or roadway, or what ever one chooses to call it, is now one hundred and ninety-two feet in length and about fourteen feet wide at its widest part. The stones in this pavement are all set on their edges." This is from the article entitled "Shrouded in Mystery are the Great Pre-Historic Ruins at Bens Run, W. Va." and was contributed by George P. Riggs and Nikola Riggs August 27, 1927. Click here for a link to that article only.

More stone walls

I apologize for the snow pictures, but I have some pictures of an interesting stone wall and some stone piles that I haven't posted and thought I really should. The general area I've posted about previously on the Rock Piles blog here.

The stone wall starts near a road with a rock structure that is not attached to the wall, but is in line with it. This photo shows the rock structure and the stone wall running uphill just behind it:

Here's a little close up of the rock underneath that little 'shelter' or maybe it's a niche.
And here is a close up of the structure itself:

The stone wall runs generally east/west and starts out around 1500 feet and ends at around 1800 feet. There are rocks all around both sides of the wall, but not part of the wall, so I wonder if this is inefficient field clearing, boundary marking, or something else?



A hiking trail intersects the wall at one point, and then the wall continues uphill. This photo is taken after the hiking trail and is at a point where a north/south wall runs nearby, but doesn't meet.

Then, this wall ends along the hiking trail here:

If you continue on the hiking trail, there is a stone pile along the bank, a short distance off the trail. This photo of the stone pile looks up toward the hiking trail:

Now swinging back slightly downhill to that spot where the north/south wall runs up toward the east/west wall, there is a stone pile on a boulder there. The second photo shows the north/south wall in the background:


And this shot is taken from near the east/west wall, looking toward the end of the north/south wall (the end is barely visible between the two large trees). This is just to show that it's very clear the two walls do not meet, and the distance is larger than a cart path or fence gate.

Then, going back to the main site here, not far from the standing stone and within view of the stone wall, there is a split wedge boulder.



And I had taken a couple of photos of the stones standing against the cairns, once the snow was gone, so I thought I should post those, too.

Speaking of corn fields

I thought I'd try looking around some corn fields for arrowheads and asked a farmer for permission. He said I could walk around the outside of the field only because they already planted their corn, and that was over a week ago.

No arrowheads, but I did pick up some odd rocks. These two are my favorite, because of the colors and textures:


But, I have no idea if they are anything other than 'just rocks'. Here is a better photo of the one that looks like a potato.

And these, I think, are "raw material":

Snowmobile Trail

This was a quick hike I took on the snowmobile trail in Delaware State Forest. The first thing I crossed was a little spot with 3 rock piles to the right of the trail. They appeared to be mostly destroyed or strewn. Here is one:

A stone wall nearby ran northeast, perpendicular to the trail I was taking. It was on the right side of the trail, but it did not continue to the left side of the trail. Further down the trail, a nice pile on boulder:

And near that pile on boulder was this:

Then, further yet, this strange structure that I don't know if it's part of an old foundation or an L shaped stone wall, or something else. It is best described as an L shaped stone wall, all of which fits in this photo:

Beyond that and parallel to the 'back of the L' in the previous photo is a piece of stone wall or rectangular rock pile, I'm not sure which. There is a lot of damage with the tree on it and there is a small dirt service road here, just beyond this pile:

So, I circled back around and started following a stone wall heading back parallel to the trail I followed in. There is a large aperture in the wall:

I couldn't be certain that the aperture was purposely made, or was a product of part of the wall collapsing. However, I really found this one support rock within the aperture interesting. Who would place a stone like this in a rock wall, in that position?

Turtle vision

Is it just me, or is something going on here?

A little site off the main site

I almost forgot about this little site I revisited early last month. I had been here before, in the summer or fall, when the ferns were high. I was glad I came back out in the spring, because I found a nice split wedge here, not far from the bird effigy.

First, I took this shot of some stones on a boulder, with a large "rock on boulder" in the background.



The "rock on boulder" close up:



And then on top (we've seen this one before, but I had to take it again):



Just below these two is a nice split wedge.
Close up:



With the half meter stick:



There's that wedge!



And here's an overall view of the stone wall corner, with the split wedge rock just barely visible back there, to the left of the rock pile in the corner of the stone wall: