Another Road Another Mystery

 This week's adventure led me down another old road where I found another mystery.

I would like to start off by reiterating something I have probably said in the past, I am not a professional, or even an amateur, archeologist, geologist, ecologist, historian or any other kind of learned person. I am just some one who is curious and who loves to go out in the woods (and other places) to see what is there.

What tends to happen with me is I see something and then I research the heck out of it so I can come close to figuring out what I have seen. Last week when I found the standing stones, I had to find out what they might be. This opened the door to many other objects that may be out there, objects I never paid attention to. The point of all this is the opinions I express (unless otherwise noted) are purely my own using the best information I can find.

This week I headed to north central Massachusetts and a large expanse of forest. After travelling down a dirt road I came to a gate and this is where my adventure began. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful area.

The first interesting thing I came across was yet another standing stone, It was just sitting out  there all by itself with nothing around it. Although it may be hard to see in this picture there is a small V on the top left of the stone. I took a compass reading (yes, this is the first time I ever used a compass) and the line went almost perfectly due north, 358 degrees. I am going to do some more research on whether stones like this ever occur naturally, and you can feel free to comment if you know.

I had veered off the main road and was following an old logging road. I thought I might come across an old mill site as I was following a stream, but I did not see any evidence of one. There was a old road on the other side of the stream but I did not cross to see where it went or if there was anything along it. I see a return trip coming. At the end of the logging road, where it intersected with the main road I came in on, I came across my first home site.

This consisted of a barn, several paddocks, a smaller structure and, across the road, a house. 

This is an overview of the barn area. It is difficult (for me at least) to take good overview shots of areas. There will be a slide show of this trip on my YouTube channel. This shot shows the enclosed area closest to the main road, one of the small foundations and a small section of the barn foundation. 

To the left of the picture there are standing walls forming squares that I believe was where the livestock was kept. As was the custom, these extended out from the bottom level of the barn, Not to jump to far ahead, but continuing along the main road, there was a thrown stone wall continuing along the road and I believe this may have been pasture. The area as a whole was not improved, pillows and cradles were everywhere. I believe it was plowed maybe once, after being logged, then probably logged again. 

After researching more of this area I learned it was never really farmed, basically the ground has always sucked. Any livestock they kept would probably be for their own use, or perhaps used in the logging process. This was a big logging area.

The house was on the other side of the main road. One interesting feature, something I never have seen before, the yard was terraced, The site was bordered to the rear by a steep embankment and someone had built retaining walls creating a flat area around the back and right side of the house.

This is a shot of the house foundation I believe the chimney stack is to the upper left. I did not find any bricks but that is no unusual as not all houses used bricks. 

This is a shot of one of the terraces. I was not able to locate anything that I could positively identify as a well. I don't believe any of this land was planted, I think it was only used for pastures.

I continued down the road and in a half mile or so things got interesting. I spotted some stacked stones along the side of the road. At first I thought it was just a change in the wall, from thrown to stacked. The problem was it was too high. Then I thought it might be a culvert since it was right next to the road. When I got closer I saw that this was some kind of store chamber. 

This shot shows the section of the wall against the road. There is no culvert going under the road nor was there any evidence of there being water in this at any time. I had also thought this might have been a well or spring house, I then thought it might have been a root cellar but it really wasn't close to any residence. Could it be a Native American store chamber? I am not sure only because there was no evidence of it having been covered by a stone roof and in all the research I have found so far all Native American stone chambers would have had one. (Not true, I have since learned that there were some with open roofs.)

But wait, there's more. A little further down the road I came to another small house foundation. Very similar in construction and layout to the first. This one also had terraces, but there did not appear to be any barn or stone walls except for one, which is shone below.

Something else I have come across in my research is that Native Americans would build short segments of wall with a spiritual significance. They would be made to look like some kind of creature. Snakes were a common symbol used. Although it doesn't show that good in the picture (I am only a slightly better photographer than I am a scientist) my first thought when I saw it was a snake. If this was all alone somewhere I may not have thought much about it, but I saw this after I saw the foundation and after I saw at least ten, maybe more piles of stone.

In the past I would have just said these stone piles were just that, piles of stone left over from clearing fields, but then, as proof a little knowledge can be dangerous, I thought they might be Native American in origin. Besides the fact there were no cleared fields, there were no stacked or thrown walls on this section of the road. And most of these, like the one pictured above, were intentionally stacked. This was not common practice with farmers. There were also several stacked stones in the area.

Now I realize I am new at this and that not everything I come upon in the woods is of Native American origin, but it is interesting, especially when you compare these to known Native American sites. I am planning on visiting "America's Stonehenge" this summer to see some of these things in person. Until then I can only use photographs of known sites.

Any way you look at it, it is fascinating stuff. Not only do I exercise my body while out, but also my mind.

Addendum: I have received more information on this particular area and have learned it is quite a hot spot for Native American Ceremonial Sites. There are at least 60 documented. I have no way of telling if this was one because they don't publish the exact locations in order to not have them vandalized, but I know the town. From the descriptions I have read of those sites I am 95% certain this was one. And, no, I am not going to tell you where it is for the same reason as above.

Update: In my last blog and video, I showed a niche in a foundation wall. I was told this might have been put there by the home owner and used as a refrigerator of sorts, which makes sense. It isn't big but could have been used as such,

I also returned to this site to take some measurements and compass readings of the standing stones. While I did find some interesting things I am not sure if they were of human origin or just natural.

Please feel free to comment and let me know what you think. And join me next time!