LiDar Swiping

 Students of the "stone wall" like this feature on this CT LiDar Viewer, the "Swipe" option that allows the viewer to quickly switch from a Hillshade view to some autumn aerial imagery that sometimes shows distinct rows of stones sometimes - or sometimes not, as above. Toggling the swiper, one suspects that there may be rows of stones up on that scenic hilltop in my old hometown:

The "longer" LiDar view:

    "Various Algonquian bands, often included in the Wappinger tribe, originally inhabited the Naugatuck River Valley. In fact, the name "Naugatuck" is derived from an Algonquian term meaning "lone tree by the fishing place". One early 19th century author explained that this name originally referred to a specific tree along the river in the area of modern-day Beacon Falls, but came to be applied broadly to the entire river over time. The valley was later settled in the 17th century by English colonists. Given its rocky soil, which was not good for farming, and the high potential for water power, the Naugatuck Valley became an industrialized area in the 19th century. It has been associated with the brass and copper industries…the Naugatuck River has been followed by early paths and roadways and is now followed by Connecticut Route 8. The river enters a forested, hilly area between Connecticut Route 118 and Thomaston..." - Wikipedia

Of course the image immediately reminded me of this map

 whereupon Thomaston is still called Northbury,

 at the Edge of the "Wilderness:"

Is that an already cleared little hill (as was Scott's Mountain) with older Indigenous Stonework (as is/was Scott's Mountain) or is it one of those "Hilltop Farms" where Yankee Exceptionalism transformed the (nearby) Wilderness at sometime or other?? Ceremonial Stone Landscape features or remnants of Merino SHEEP Farmers in the brief period before barbed wire was invented or something??

Why didn't I ask Charlie Crowell if it's known who was the "first farmer" at this particular spot??

Old Aerial:

Some more images, which is about all I have until I find opportunity to ground check

 these probable rows of stones:

1934: Pasture? Hayfields?? Woodlots???

Walking Slowly to Medicine Rock

 

John Patrick MacSweeney Jr. at Medicine Rock (2022)

   We really didn’t go all that far, my brother and I, but we saw some interesting things. We saw the “nearest” Medicine Rock (one of two on the trail map), a milky white quartzite outcrop, but we also saw a great number of dead ash trees as well as two peculiar rows of stones that seemed sort of related to the one of the multi-trunked trees (maybe, possibly):

  We had been noting an absence of “stone walls” and finally found two. There was one that was composed of larger stones, pointed at about true north while the other is composed of smaller stones which appeared to continue in into the brushy distance to the west, sort of a bunch of stone circles rather than a linear or zigzag construction, although it appears somewhat serpentine on the LiDar image I pulled up from the world-wide computer-net:

 

   So here’s a “Why go back?” answer: There are some interesting things to be seen on that tiny piece of the world and only the curious have something to find. I've got a snapshot of 1934 to look at, as well as other perhaps traces of older cultural stone landscape features to observe…  

A circle of stones to the west of the trail, 

A Row of Káhtôquwukansh or “Stone Prayers?”

Drought and the Great Serpent

 

     I’ve been watching those old stone snakes transform and disappear for years now, some rebuilt to make them “pretty” or, even worse, far too many just bulldozed out of existence - neither of which can ever be undone. When I drive by and see some brush clearing going on along a row of stones, I will often cross my fingers and hope that they just leave that “stone wall” untouched, thinking I’ll be back sometime soon to catch a good photo of some Indigenous diagnostic feature but more often than not, the next time I drive by, I’ll find that the machines got there first and that artwork I saw is forever gone.

    The Great Serpent is an Indigenous spirit being who, among other things, can bring rainfall. The thought passed through my mind that perhaps this destruction of the “snake rows of stones” and the drought just might be related…

 "To the Tanoan language speakers along the Rio Grande, this mythical horned and plumed serpent Awanyu appears as a flash flood, winding its way down an arroyo after a heavy rain. It is a water serpent both feared and respected. He lives in springs, ponds and rivers and when angered can cause heavy rains destroying crop fields..."  

https://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2018/08/avanyu-water-serpent.html

https://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2016/08/look-little-closer-at-stone-wall.html

https://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2007/06/im-listening-to-sound-of-thunder-in.html