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Have you been out in the woods lately? If so, what do you look at out there? What do you think about? I like to explore and look for clues to the past, and think about the folks that used to occupy and work in the places through which I walk. A Very Straight Example of a Stone Wall in the Vermont Forest. Lately, I've been drawn toward stone walls I find in the forest. They have their stories to tell. Their stories go back millions of years to the forming of our landscape. Glaciation, melting of ice, torrential downpours, blizzards and high winds, lots of moving water and earth, and lots of time, all worked together to bring us the hills and rocks, lakes and streams, the landscape that we see today. And these stone walls also tell stories of the people who built them; who toiled and sweated over these stones, rocks and boulders. Since about the 1760's, settlers in our area began finding stones in the soil and piling them up. Those farmers had plenty of stones to work with, as they were not too far under the soil. When they were initially clearing these fields, they tossed the stones and boulders aside, to the edges of the fields, basically as piles of refuse. When those settlers and their kids and grandchildren needed material for building walls, the stones were readily available. The big wall building boom around here was from about 1810 to the 1840's, which coincided with the sheep boom. Sheep raising and wool production became the big thing for local farmers. Prized Merino sheep were imported in large numbers from Spain. Most of the abandoned, rugged stone walls out in the woods, especially in the higher country, were built during this period by the farmers who lived nearby. Their sheep needed cleared fields, and fencing or walls to keep them from roaming. The stones that had been tossed aside a generation or two earlier, made an excellent source for delineating field boundaries and keeping the sheep inside. The walls only needed to be about four and a half feet tall, so that the sheep wouldn't be able to see over the walls, A Well Preserved Section of a Rustic Wall in the Woods Thousands of miles of stone walls were built in Vermont and New Hampshire during the sheep boom. Now, about two hundred years later, they still exist in many locations, out in the woods. I recently followed the perimeter of an old field by following stone walls. As I attempted to follow the first wall, it disappeared near a vernal pool. I attempted to follow the line that it made, but as I ascended a knoll, I lost the wall completely. Later, as I was heading down the other side, I suddenly noticed a stone wall appearing to rise up out of the earth. Parts of it were in fine shape, but some sections were totally buried. I followed it downhill. Old Stone Wall Appearing to Rise Up out of the Ground. As I continued downhill, following the wall, I noticed that some sections were totally buried. I could see clues to where the old wall lay underneath. Trees that had since grown, had pushed stones up, so that they were lying near or on their roots. As suddenly as a wall became buried, ten or twenty feet beyond, it came out from underground again. Remnants of Stone Wall. Most of the Wall is Buried Here. I noticed sections of the wall that were almost buried, in the process of becoming an invisible portion of a long, straight wall. One reason why certain sections of the wall had become buried, is tree blow-downs. I could see how some trees would trash a wall as they came down, scattering the wall stones. Then, all that dead wood is just left there, alongside and on top of the wall, to rot away over the decades, helping to build up and enrich the soil, and slowly burying what's left of the stone wall. This Large Old Tree Blew Down and Wrought Havoc on a section of an Old Stone Wall. The forest stone wall seems to be constantly in the process of being buried and or destroyed. In addition to falling, dying trees, leaves annually fall and blow around, and tend to bank up against the walls, in protected areas. The leaves too, build up the soil. In addition, earthquakes, many too small for us to notice, have their dismantling effect on the old walls, slowly, but surely. As I walk along the walls, I think about the folks who moved every one of these stones, and other boulders now unseen, that are now buried under forest litter and humus. How those farmers, with their enterprising spirit, prepared their fields and worked in this very area so long ago. I could imagine the sounds of the sheep, the voices of the farmers, and the sounds of the stones being moved by manual labor and basic machines such as iron bars used as levers. In one place I saw a large, attractive granite stone that appeared to have been placed in its location and used for a bench, with a grand view, back in the day when the fields were cleared. I could picture a couple or a group of folks having their lunch there, and I sensed their spirits in the peace of the morning, with a breeze in the tree crowns above. Thanks for traipsing down Old Roads, Rivers and Rails of the Upper Valley, with me, Bob Totz. To subscribe to this blog, simply send an email to me at [email protected] If Sources, and suggestions for further research:
Reading the Forested Landscape by Tom Wessels. Series of videos, Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcLQz-oR6sw&t=131s The History and Structure of Stone Walls by Kevin Gardner. (Video - 1 hour 40 mins. ): www.youtube.com/watch?v=eld9wbmszcU Interesting article on the Merino Sheep craze in 19th century Vermont: https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/spanish-sheep-craze-that-forever-changed-vermont/ Source for Vermont LiDAR mapping: maps.vermont.gov/vcgi/html5viewer/?viewer=vtmapviewer Conway Daily Sun article: Why the stone walls? Follow the sheep boom, bust If you liked the previous story, you may enjoy: Strafford Vermont's Abandoned Rock Wall Foundations
5 Comments
Pris
5/24/2020 08:53:10 am
Loved this story of the old stone walls. Willem Lange did a program on NHPBS and talked about old stone walls a couple of years ago.
Reply
5/24/2020 11:06:50 am
I bet it was a good show! Willem's shows have always been fun!
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amos Kornfeld
5/26/2020 01:35:18 pm
Have you read Reading the Forested Landscape by Tom Wessel? I think you'd enjoy it if you haven't.
Leigh Davis
5/26/2020 06:16:45 pm
Walk early everyday with my dogs through woods in Enfield to discover these stone walls that appear in the middle of nowhere. Take pictures as people do destroy them or dismantle them for ornamental use. I be.lived in NH they are protected. Is there a group of stone wall lovers? Love finding old oil cans, cans of beans etc that are testimony of these great craftsmen.
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Bob Totz
5/27/2020 06:33:37 am
If there isn't a group of stone wall lovers, there should be. I might have an oil can for you, Leigh...
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AuthorI'm Bob Totz, retired VT postmaster, and historical geographer ARCHIVES:
October 2021
EXPANDED ARCHIVES: AUGUST 2021 1858 Johnson Map of North America MAY 2021 1795 - "Road Over the Mountain" - Part Two Historic Toll House For Sale 1795 - "Road Over the Mountain" Part One OCTOBER 2020 Finding That Special Peaceful Place AUGUST 2020 Kayaking on the Pompy JULY 2020 Pt. 2: What the Heck Are These Things? JUNE 2020 Bob's Bio... What the Heck Are These Things? Pt. 1 MAY 2020 Stone Walls and Spirits The View APRIL 2020 Sunny Brook Farm Relics: Pt 2. Sunny Brook Farm Relics: Pt 1. MARCH 2020 Signs of Norwich Pt. 2 COVID-19 Tracking Map Centertown and Valleyquest Signs of Norwich Pt. 1 "Imperfect Union" - Book Review Historic Centertown FEBRUARY 2020 King's Hwy Pt. 2 WRJ Museum at Post Mills Airport Chatauguay Vermont The Independent Farmer poem Traveling Along the King's Highway - Lebanon NH JANUARY 2020 Finding Parkhurst Cemetery In Search of Parkhurst Cemetery Affordable Housing The Old Stone Grill Two Rivers Trail-Kmart License and Registration, Please! Prohibition, Murder and Dr. Seuss Peace, Paris, & P.O. DECEMBER 2019 BLOGGER'S LINKS Welcome to Old Roads Love-Quail Hollow fun Dartmouth Cemetery SEPTEMBER 2019 E. Thetford Cemetery JUNE 2019
Taps: Meetinghouse Cemetery 4-Corners Borders Quest Old Iron Gate Stumbling Upon History Sunrise Walk MAY 2019 4 Corners Cemetery Strafford's Abandoned Foundations Art in Old Stonework APRIL 2019 Strafford Tpke Pt 2 Strafford Tpke Pt 1 White River Valley FEBRUARY 2019 Learning from Historic Maps of the Upper Valley Change in Lewiston VT JANUARY 2019 A Vermont Ski Waltz John Ledyard 1773 What is the Upper Valley? DECEMBER 2018 Dartmouth Green Music Video: Sometimes Music Video: Montreal Express Railway Disaster of 1887 |