A Mystery at the End of the Road

 Recently I explored a local conservation area and came across some interesting finds. Of course, I came across the standard colonial house foundation, chimney stack and all, But then the fun began.

You can check my YouTube slide show and you will see more pictures than I will show here. And keep in mind, the pictures are not necessarily in the order I took them, which only means some of the things I saw first didn't make sense until later when I started putting it all together. 

We'll skip the house foundation and get right to the meat and potatoes, or in this case the standing stone. 

This stone was along the old road, not far from where the trail began. My first thought was it was some kind of mile marker or signpost, but there are no markings on the stone. I also compared this to pictures of other known mileposts and markers and it is quite a bit larger than those. 

So let's walk up the trail a bit where we came across the large flat rock forming a shelter of sorts. When I am out waywardly walking, I always look for anything unusual, things that either don't look natural or I don't see often. The standing stone doesn't look natural. The shelter is something you don't see very often. 

Now I am not a geologist and I don't play one on TV so I don't know a lot about rocks but I assume this large slab may have been dragged by the receding glacier at the end of the ice age. That or there have been some extraterrestrials using these stones as Legos.

We'll get back to the possible connection between these two in a bit. A short time later I came upon two more standing stones. The first caught my eye because it was interesting looking. I thought it look like the head of some kind of animal, perhaps a deer or a coyote. 

Like the first standing stone, it appeared this stone had also been carved. Additionally, there was a small stone at the rear which appeared to be a wedge (I saw this same thing behind the first one when I went back for a second look). Was this intentionally placed here or at the least carved for some reason? This stone was not on the side of the road but on the side of a trail. Was it a marker?

About 100 feet up the slope from this second rock was a third one. Again it was similar to the first, although smaller. It had a v-cut at the top, not as pronounced as the first, and the same kind of wedge stone placed against it. Why were these here? Did they serve some purpose? 

It wasn't until I turned around and started heading down the slope towards the trail that I saw what I think may have been the reason. In line with the two stones, in a rock outcropping, there was a cave. The cave was large enough for people to have used it for shelter.

Things began to click. The first one was near a possible shelter, and these two were also near a shelter. Were they pointing the way to shelter for anyone traveling through? Native Americans perhaps?

When I arrived home I started to do some research. I came across a website called Stone Structures in New England. There I found information on various Native American stone structures, some sounding very similar to what I found. Evidently, they would have what they called "spirit stones" which they used in various religious ceremonies. I sent some pictures to the owners of the site and they have requested more pictures and information. They believe this is what they are. 

I will be returning to this site very soon to take some compass readings and to do some more exploring. When I do I will post what I find here. I am not going to disclose where I found these items in order to not have them vandalized.

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