What comes to mind when New England is mentioned - Fall Foliage, Old Barns, Covered Bridges, Maple Syrup - yes that's true but there is another symbol within the states that make up this part of the country that you might not be aware of it's "Stone Walls".
They all tell a story, it's like a word-less record of the area going as far back as the 17th century. In his book "Exploring Stone Wall" University of Connecticut Geology Professor Robert Thorson said " "Stone Walls are important because they are signal flags for history and prehistory, the threads that hold the historic landscape together".
Most of the walls found in New England whether on active farms or
trailing off into overgrown forests were built to divide fields,
separating animals and crops, but each wall is unique. I found out from a little research that there are five distinct types of stone walls - Dumped Wall, Tossed Wall, Single Wall, Double Wall and Laid Wall - and of course Granite was the type of rock most used in these constructions.
You can find stone walls pretty much anywhere you look - Along roadways, surrounding cemeteries however I personally find the ones seen while walking through the woods the most fascinating. Most of these walls are falling apart and many lay near crumbling foundations which indicates someone at some point in time lived there.
Every time I've come across this I love to stand for a bit and try to
imagine the people who lived there and what their lives might have been like. But what's really impressive (to me anyway) is the
fact that some of these foundations and walls were built three hundred
years ago and are still partially visible.
So the next time you come across an old stone wall stop for a moment and listen to it's story.
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