-and Sachem Pomperaug’s Castle
Both sides of a raised or Striking Serpent Effigy Row of Stacked Stones or Qusukqaniyutôk
Sometimes, but not
all the time to say the least, one may find an old painting that includes some
Indigenous Ceremonial Landscape features. Here’s one:
With some informed
imagination as well as familiarity of the landscape, sometimes one can detect
many details and slap some labels on these old paintings:
Seen from a distance, of course you can't see the details of those features but ground checking some
of those “stone walls/fences,” one sometimes finds the Indigenous Iconography
is present, “snakes and turtles mostly” but other effigies as well, effigies
one won’t find if one isn’t looking for them, because of that old myth that these rows of stacked are all settler colonist constructions made after (in this town) 1673 rather than older Indigenous constructions that may in fact far older than that, built by Indigenous Peoples sometime in the past…
At the time I took some of these Orenaug photos, I wasn’t “seeing” the large boulders (and tors?) below the cliff side
of Bethel Rock as Raised Head or Striking Serpents, my term for these sorts of
snake head variations, apparently after voting at the Senior Center in 2014:
There's even a Serpent with raised head built up on a rocky talus slope:
I had to ponder some smaller examples and finally puzzle
out this one, over on a local land trust property before I ever figured out that this is a (sometimes) repeated Snake Head variation:
Pootatuck Stone Effigy and a Pictograph in Alabama, two Uktena-like Serpents, head to head:
There's all sorts of interesting stone features up there, Hidden in Plain Sight, that practically no one has any interest in in my town, just above the center of town: In the mid-1800’s, Woodbury CT historian William Cothren wrote: “Orenaug is the name of the beautiful trap-rock cliffs, which bound the village on the east. The front cliff has been recently purchased and improved by the writer, as a mountain park. Oak, maple, hickory, chestnut, and cedar trees are scattered over the mountain-top, and in the beautiful ravine beyond, while the crest is covered by a beautiful grove of pine trees, in the midst of which a tower, thirty feet in height, has been erected, from which views of six surrounding towns may be obtained. It has been named the Orenaug Park. Here one can always catch a delightful breeze, and enjoy a beautiful panoramic view of the village, valley and meandering river below, while the whispering pines above his head sooth the perturbed, wearied and overworked mind. The beautiful evergreens suggest thoughts of peace, and the beatitude of the eternal rest on high:
"As the softened land-breeze marches,
Through the pine's cathedral arches."
A few moments walk to the south-east, through a pleasant grove, over the second cliff, brings the visitor to the celebrated 'Bethel Rock," in the bosom of these cliffs, of which more will be said hereafter. A more lovely and romantic spot, even without its sacred associations, cannot easily be found.”
Back in 1673, Capt.
John Minor and a group of people walked from present day Stratford CT to
present day Woodbury, ending up at some abandoned Indian fields and village
site, near the grave of the Sachem Pomperaug, according to local Historian
William Cothren. There’s a big rock formation called Pomperaug’s Castle,
reportedly an Indian Fort, but having climbed up there, I’m not entirely
certain that’s true. I’m more inclined to believe that there was a palisaded
wooden structure on a rise above that floodplain called the Hollow where John
Minor had a timber framed house built making use of the old abandoned Indian
Fort. It was the easiest thing to do after all, just as planting in those
already cleared fields was…
Related Posts:
and a few "Newer Posts" after that one.
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