Linear row views

The old school house and the linear row
and then some more views of this "Wall of no great importance - if you forget that it's an irreplaceable object of great antiquity and beauty, whether colonial or Native American in origin, that is part of the cultural landscape of a town that is proud of it's rural nature...

A letter from the CT State Historic Preservation Office was read that stated that the wall is considered to be of no great importance...

The end of the row connects to possibly a buried row along an ancient glacial lakeshore, I believe. Just as far away as the known "Contact Time" village, in the opposite direction is a rock shelter site.

This place was known and visited by Native People for probably 20,000 years.

Any guesses at the staggering number of artifacts that may be sleeping in the ground here? Any guesses at how much Knowledge and Wisdom and Beauty will be lost about a Sacred Cultural Landscape?

Wishing and Wondering

As time goes by I'll know I will wish I had better photos of the row that somehow remained pretty much intact since 1659. I could be totally wrong, but I think it was a row that was (at the least) a fire break for the western bank near the fish weir that is the origin of the word Nonnewaug, and the original path to my house, on the row's uphill side. I think my house originally belonged to John Minor who was the Indian Interpreter for the Pomeraug Plantation. I think it was built slowly, it's eastern front facing the Indian Fields, dating back perhaps to the time of the Nonnewaug Purchase. I think it was a strategy designed to have a house already built on those most desirable lands already cleared by the Native Americans for who really knows how long, so that when the Indians did move, it could readily be acquired.

Remnants of the zigzag rows remain in the area, but since 1991 when I first began to think that they might be pre-colonial constructions, many have dissappeared due to building and road widening as well as other human activities, while natural forces have destroyed others.

There's some consolation in knowing alot of this will be buried...



The old school house and the zigzag row...

I keep trying to guess what will stay and what will disappear...

This end of the linear row will probably remain intact and visible...

the road plan

Linear row meets zigzag row. In the background, where Nonnewaug Road meets CT Route 61...

The plan...

Well, last night I just saw Al Dayton, a guy from my old neighborhood. His construction company got the contract to realign my road. He explained the markers to me. It turns out that they are going to build the west side of the road right up to my property line before zooming out to the east into the water company property - where the fog always forms over the wetlands- obliterating some ancient stone walls that are part of the cultural landscapes that occurred here, going back to prehistoric times.

My barn will be 39 inches from the edge of the road at one point, measuring off the stake they put in today.

Make that 39 and a quarter inches. I want to be honest - someone has to.

If I’m looking at it right, the southeast corner will be even closer.

They originally told me there would be this green space that moved the road away from my barn that their road sends water towards!!

No wonder the Town Planners didn’t notify me of the meetings by mail as they promised to in July 2005.

The whole idea was to ensure people’s safety while driving on my road.
Actually, it was to cut down on accidents on the state highway where it meets my road around which all these accidents occurred in the recent past, except for one – which happened at a spot that will remain exactly the same.

Is there really nothing I can do about it?
Am I going to have to watch it take place, lose that extra tiny little bit of property that separates me from the road, and see the ancient Indian stone rows disappear forever?

July 2005

A Wall of No Great Importance

I attended a town meeting on July 7, 2005 regarding the realignment of Nonnewaug Road in Woodbury CT. Part of the proposed work involves the removal of a portion of a “stone wall.” A letter from the CT State Historic Preservation Office was read that stated that the wall is considered to be of no great importance, but I strongly disagree with that. The possibility exists that this row of stones may not be of Colonial or Historic origin but could rather be prehistoric in origin, built by Native Americans as part of a land management scheme that depicts a higher degree of civilization than is accepted by most archaeologists and anthropologists.

There are actually two adjoining stone rows in question. One is a linear row that joins a zigzag stone row, a row atypical of the incidental construction of zigzag row that results from stones being thrown up against a wooden “snake fence” that has long since deteriorated, as in described in books about stone walls by Eric Sloane and others. If this were all the fence was, it is still Historically a Wall of Great Importance.

Another straight-line row connects to this zigzag row along the road, the first terrace above the floodplain, the shores of a glacial lake…

Zigzag Lines

If I told you I know how old Womoqui felt,
You probably wouldn’t understand
Not many people remember the man
The Elder Sachem,
The Old Bear
Who leapt from the Falls
Rather than leave his lands
So the story goes
In that old history,
The Ancient History
Of Woodbury.

It’s cut and fill
On the old Indian Trail
That led to this old house;
They’ll be cutting on my side
And filling over the old Indian firebreak,
That Zigzag row, the sacred row –
This morning I just happened to look
At a book of pictographs
Where it says those zigzag lines
Over Crazy Horse’s head mean that
He was a man of Great Mystery
Touched by the Great Spirit
A man of Great Medicine…

The Road Realignment

I guess I'm just snoozing on Turtle Island when I should be awake and aware.

I had asked to be notified about any town meetings regarding the road, but I wasn't. I thought the project wasn't going through, but apparently it is...

Nonnewaug Road Realignment
Minutes
Board of Selectmen Regular Meeting
April 26, 2007
Page 2


Nonnewaug Road Realignment Project –Six (6) bids were submitted. Tony Ciriello of Milone & MacBroom reviewed the bids and found Dayton Construction of Watertown to be the lowest and appears to be complete. However, the bid is over budget. Selectman Crane has submitted a request to transfer funds from both a STEAP grant and a LoCIP grant. The combination of the two requests would cover the shortfall. He has received verbal approval
of the transfers and is awaiting written confirmation.
MOTION: Selectman Crane moved and Selectman Hinckley seconded to award the Nonnewaug Road Realignment Project to Dayton Construction Company,
Inc. at $357,565 contingent upon the written confirmation of transfer of funds
by the State Office of Policy and Management.

UNANIMOUSLY APPROVED

So I guess I'll be documenting some more pieces of a disappearing cultural landscape.

This is the linear stone row that leads to the old glacial lakeshore. To the right is the zigzag row...

More to come...

My Own Rockpile

I know I said I was going here and there to take more photos, but I've been busy.

I did walk over to the weir on the river the other day and found a little rock pile I made that got washed over by the recent record rains. I sort of forgot it was there, but did see some stuff remained.

I took some weir-side pictures this morning and here they are...

I plucked a couple more abraders and maybe a hammer stone, washed out of the bank on "my side' of the river. I would have walked on top of the weir to get to the erosion on the other side to poke around, but I can't do it anymore - it's slowly dissappearing more and more...

Thanks Rob B.

While looking at the river, I did see someone I know drive by who stopped to talk and got his permission to look for something else - and found some other stuff...

In my memory, it was quite different. But there were nice old rows and new stuff all mixed in.

Details to come...

More Flooding

This is the other end of the river at left, below the upper end. I wanted to capture some of the zigzag rows I think are very old along the main river - that kept the banks from eroding- but couldn't get to any good spots. Many are now gone, so here's a bit of zigzag by the roadside that resembles it...