SECRETS OF STONE STRUCTURES IN NEW ENGLAND

Stones walls and other stone formations are certainly an important part of Killingworth's history. When walking the country roads and woods of this town we come across old stone foundations, stone walls, old root cellars,  and cairns of unknown origins. Some of the stone formations don't seem to make sense when considering practical purposes. It is fascinating to ponder what the purpose was of some of these structures. Check out the video at the bottom of this post for an interesting tour and explanations/theories of stone structures in New England. Also check out the link at the bottom that talks about The Hammonasset Line

The first 5 photos are of the stone wall at Parmelee Farm which was built by the community . The wall was built during a stone wall workshop guided by Dan Snow and Andrew Pighills

http://www.parmeleefarm.org/walling/

The photos below were taken in a parcel of state forest in Killingworth, CT. The photos are of a large stone wall on the edge of a ridge. There is some question as to whether it is a boundary line or a fence to keep animals in  or more of a lookout/protection type of wall built by people earlier than the colonists. There is also a photo of a Cairn.

 Is the hole in the wall above...a lookout hole or did a stone fall out over the years?

 Picture of a cairn above with the foundation of a large rock. Many Cairns seem to have been built including a large already existing rock.Could it be a grave marker? Could it have some sort of religious or astronomical purpose? Is it a land marker or just a very precisely formed rock pile? Check out the video below for more theories.

 Some people speculate as to why many very old New England walls will place stones connecting already present natural rock formations as in the photo above. As you can see the stones placed by humans serve no real functional purpose. Is it just for aesthetic purposes? Some feel that ancient religions may have believed that connecting the stone formations in this manner produced some sort of "energies"

It's just my feeling that these photos of the wall in the woods on the ridge in the photos above are older than just several generations. A group from Yale came through our property around 30 years ago to study the geology in the woods behind us where these stone formations are.I wished I had asked them a few questions. Here is another picture of a large boulder that was interesting. The photo does not do justice to the actual size of the boulder as we are looking down at it from another wall on a different ridge in the same area of woods as the other wall on a different ridge. For some reason walls were often formed on ridges.

The video below explores some of the possible purposes of these stone formations and who the builders may have been. Some feel that all of the stone structures were made by colonists. Some say the Indians may have used some of these structures for burial of the dead. Others believe that ancient cultures, such as the Druids, traveled here before the colonists appeared. The most fantastical explanation this video offers up is that aliens from another world or dimension created some of the stone structures of New England and other structures around the world. The video encourages us to believe this latter theory. It is made to seem that humans are much more intelligent now than ever before in history....therefore humans from ancient times could not have been smart enough to build the pyramids, Stonehenge...etc. I tend to think that even though it is possible that there is life somewhere else in the universe....that these stone formations that we have observed from all around the world could certainly have been made by other civilized human societies which possessed certain technological information that the general public today has not been made aware of.

Article about The Hammonasset Line
The Hammonasset Line is an imaginary line that supposedly connects Montauk Long Island to the Connecticut mainland and goes up through Mass. Parts of Madison and Killingworth are included in this line of interesting stone structures including turtle rock formations, cairns, prayer seats...etc. Many of these stone formations are believed to have something to do with the solstices.
http://articles.courant.com/2010-12-20/news/hc-hammonasset-line-solstice-1215-20101220_1_solstice-stone-walls-prayer-seatshttp://secretsofthestones.org/

2 Beautiful Coffee Table Books by Dan Snow: Stone Artist and Wall Builder who supervised the stonewall workshop at Parmelee Farm in Killingworth, CT. along with Andrew Pighills.  


In the Company of Stone

Listening to Stone