Ceremonial Stone Landscape- Maybe

The other day Jack and I hiked a trail known as Tri-Town Blue Loop in North Stonington CT. I watched a video posted by another TouTuber and thought it might be interesting. I had no idea how interesting it was. 

It wasn’t long before I started seeing interesting man-made stone formations. The further I went into the area, the more I came across.  Here is my video of the hike. Tri-town Blue Trail 

I want to share some more commentary on my hike. Poor planning meant my battery was running low, so I needed to cut down on my video. Of course, this was right as I was in the heart of the stone structures. I will be going back as soon as possible and will make sure I have a recharging device. 

I haven’t found any “official” information as to whether this is a recognized Ceremonial Stone Landscape (CSL) or not, but I did find some information on signs posted in the area. The area is known as Pequot land. I think it’s a CSL for several reasons. I counted at least ten stone prayers. I define a stone prayer as a boulder or boulders with smaller stones placed on top of them. There was one particularly nice one. 

There were also several cairns and larger stone piles. The piles were hand-stacked and consisted of similar size stones. The area itself did not appear to have been cultivated or improved in any way. There were also many stone rows. These rows were massive, most being between three and five high. They were well made with some architectural elements and niches. I find it hard to believe they were made by the farmer. 

As I normally do, I wondered where all the stones came from. I can’t even estimate how many stones were used. I did come across a black granite quarry which possibly been one source for the stones but would the quarrymen have bothered to build these walls?

I also came across an interesting stone enclosure. It was a semicircle and a rectangle if that makes sense. There was also a “pen” made from the same stone as the rows. It was square and I don’t think there was an opening as would be expected if it was a livestock pen   However, by this time Jack and I were in a hurry to be done. I will go back to this later. 

There was also an old mill dam and pond. I did not see evidence of a foundation but I will spend more time here next time. This was a four-mile hike and although not extremely difficult it was for this old man. I took an alternate trail cutting off about a mile. Next time I’ll come in from the other end of the loop. 

Old Connecticut Path

After several weeks of cold, windy, wintery weather, I finally could do some exploring. Several years ago I watched a video about the Old Connecticut Path and a stone wall purportedly used as part of the path. After two years of trying, I finally located the likely location. 

Mt. Hope River

The Connecticut Path began as a Native American Trail starting at the Massachusetts Bay and heading southwest toward Windsor, CT. Through the years, much of the route was widened and improved, much of it is paved and built up. There are some sections where the original path is still visible. Today I wanted to find this wall and try to determine if it was part of the road, and see what other evidence of the path there might be

A rusted relic

I’ll begin by saying this exploration wasn’t for the faint of heart. Before arriving, I had done some research on the area I would be hiking. On both Google Earth and CalTopo I could see the wall. I also could see there was a river with steep slopes on one side. What I didn’t see was the field full of thorn bushes before I could get to the wall. The area was also frozen marsh. But after hacking through that and getting only slightly wet I found the wall. 

The wall was exactly as the video depicted. It ran east/west through a marsh. It was anywhere from 5 to 6 feet wide and from 3 to 4 feet high. I would say it was 100 yards long. Its construction was what is called a filled wall. This means it had two sides made of large field stones and the middle was filled with smaller stones. The base of the two sides were made of large flat, rectangular stones. I couldn’t tell if they were quarried. This is the first wall I have seen with that feature. I have read about some colonial walls being built in this way to provide citizens access to church services in the event of deep snow. This wall would have made travelling through this marsh much easier.

I spent some time looking around for any signs of the path. I did not find anything. It should have been fairly obvious since it was a well-traveled road. One other thing I noticed, the two ends of the wall were “finished”, there were no ramps or inclines that would have allowed travelers to get onto the wall. One end did have a tree that had grown after the wall was built, and there was some stones scattered around that may have been used as a ramp but I can’t say for sure. The other end of the wall was a ninety degree corner and the wide wall continued for another 100 feet. At the east corner, the wall continued as a single row until it reached the current road. This has me questioning whether this was used as a road or not.

East end

West end

I next headed west towards the river and was not able to locate any further evidence of the road. According to the video, it crossed the river via stepping stones and appeared well travelled. I had arrived at the river and was at the top of a steep slope. It was obvious this wasn’t the crossing point. I walked along the ridge and saw I was losing elevation and was soon at river level. Looking at my map, I headed north along the river edge but did not find any signs of a trail. 

The view from the top

Back at the wall I again found no sign of a trail. I followed the single row wall and on the other side was what appeared to be a small stream. It was obstructed by a large fallen tree and an even denser section of thorns. I could not follow it any further. After viewing the video again, I saw that this was actually the old road. Had I been able to follow it I would have been able to see evidence of the road. 

One thing struck me as odd. The fact that there appeared no way for someone to get onto the wall without having to climb was one. Although this trail was first used by Native Americans on foot, it eventually was used by horses and carts. How would they have gotten to the top? As you can see by the picture above, the west end now has a tree growing through it. It appears the tree displaced the stones at the end of the wall, but it does not appear there are enough stones there to have been a ramp. 

The angled wall at the east end

The east end of the wall continued as a single row wall. The wider wall took a ninety degree turn to the south and continued a short distance. It almost looked like there was a ramp there but even if there were a horse pulling a cart, it could not make the turn at that angle. 

I will take another trip to this location to find the crossing. From the video I could definitely see the location of the road. It even splits on the other side of the river. I did explore along the east river bank, but it was extremely difficult. I will head back when the ground has had a chance to thaw.

Here is a link to the YouTube video. https://youtu.be/qLGQIy-UylY?si=i6PiKyaSXiowo2nN

Stay tuned for next adventure on the Old Connecticut Path.