Red Front Trail

 It is rare that I have the history of an area before I hike, but this exploration was different. I went to the Yale-Myers Forest in Ashford, CT. I have been to this area before, and it is one of my favorites. This exploration was on the Red Front trail. I am always satisfied with this forest; I always find at least one cellar hole and old walls.

Stone Wall

Today was no different. This area was first settled in the 1750s and farmed until 1930 when the owner donated it to the Yale College Forestry School. About three-quarters of the land was used for agricultural purposes, mostly as pastures, but it was abandoned between 1850 and 1870. Knowing this made it much easier to read the landscape.

House Foundation 1

I found two separate foundations. One was an old colonial house and had the standard "C" shape foundation with the chimney in the curve of the "C". It was unusual as the cellar was very narrow on one side. Foundation 1 is a picture from the old road. In the center is the chimney stack.

House Foundation 2

Foundation 2 is a picture of the front portion of the cellar, the left side of the "C".

The other interesting thing I noticed was the land behind the cellar hole was excavated. The land was used for mining gravel. There is evidence of this all around the home site. This gravel was used in the building of the Center Turnpike. This road was built in 1826 and ran from Thompson, CT to Tolland, CT.. ("The Turnpikes of New England", Frederic T. Ward. 1919) The route of this turnpike can still be followed today. It has various names but if you follow the access road in either direction you only need to continue as straight as you can.

House Foundation 3

Foundation 3 is another picture of the left side of the "C". 

House Foundation 4

Foundation 4 is the rear of the house. At the bottom of the picture is the edge of the gravel pit. This would be the long side of the "C". The taller wall at the top of the picture is the outside wall of the foundation. This is the narrow section of the cellar.

House Foundation 5

Foundation 5 is the other arm of the "C". The chimney stack is to the left of the picture. There is a niche in the foundation that appears to be from a missing stone. It does not go any further. If it did it would go under the road.

There was also a barn foundation across the road from the house. This foundation was also typical of others I have seen. There were some rusted relics scattered about.

Barn Foundation

There were also plenty of stone walls. For the most part, these walls were well-built and, in some instances, four to five feet high. These walls formed several sections where the land had been cleared and used for pastures. One thing about this forest is that the university is conducting several experiments throughout where they are managing forest growth. There are different habitats throughout. This means you can see the land's appearance at different points over the last 150 years.

One Stone Wall

The trail was on an old farm road. I don't think it was a town road, meaning it was primarily used by the farmer and didn't carry heavy traffic. It didn't show the usual signs of heavy use, although it was used to haul the gravel for the building of the turnpike. 

Throughout this part of CT and MA, the terrain is a series of ridges and ravines running in a north-south direction. These ravines can be narrow or wide, and the ledges can be steep or gradual. In the ravines, you will either find an old road or wetlands. In this forest, there was only one wetland gully. since we haven't had any soaking rain in a few months it was dry except for a few spots. This section was also on a downhill slope, the downhill being from south to north. This land would have been terrible for farming and you could see it had not been improved other than for logging. 

Why is this important? Throughout the rest of the area, I did not come across any type of stone structures or piles aside from the walls. In this section, I first found two stone piles. There was a path through this valley that I wouldn't classify as a road. It was where the trail led and it did have some evidence it was used as a connector between fields. 

East Side Pile (Side View)

The first pile I saw was on the east side of this trail. It was large and rectangular. My first thought was it was a waste pile from field clearing. It had the appearance of being dumped, not stacked. 

East Side Pile (Front View)

The second pile was on the west side of the trail and was of similar size to the first. There was a difference, however. This pile was stacked and had a large boulder at its base. This was not a wall as the wall was about twenty feet behind the pile. It might be either a retaining wall or a loading platform for loading logs. I have come across these on other hikes. Inspecting it more closely it was not a platform. It was too high, one end was not level with the ground to allow a wagon access.

West Side Pile (Side View)

West Side Pile (Front View)

I began asking myself questions. Would a farmer take the time to carefully build this pile? One pile appeared to have been dumped but this one was definitely built, I also came across two stone circles. These were manmade, not natural. These are common in areas where Native Americans lived. It is speculated they were used as prayer seats. 

Stone Circle

It is hard to tell from this picture but these stones were put in a circle. The trees in the center are not old.

Stone Circle 2

Both of these circles and the two stone piles are all close to each other. They are located on a downhill slope.

I have no way to date these structures but I have a theory about them. We know that Native Americans did not just disappear after the Europeans came to this country, as much as the colonists tried to make this happen. I think they just went "underground". We know that many of them assimilated with the settlers. Some had their own small farms and others worked for larger farms such as this one. I think the section of the farm was used by Native Americans as their own private ceremony site. It wasn't a good parcel for agriculture. It was in the middle of other productive fields. It wasn't far from the barn. I think the Native Americans in the area may have built these while working on the farm. I am working on proving this theory.

None of the four structures I mentioned, the two piles and two stone circles, are natural. Stones will not neatly stack themselves. These piles are not the result of receding glaciers. Same with the circles, these stones did not form circles by themselves. On a scale of 1 to 10, I give this a six.