Excellent Article About Old Native Routes, Stone Structures, Selection of Praying Villages, Etc.

Link To Excellent Article

      Below I have linked an article somebody wrote about "The Great Trail" which is an ancient American Indian route from Boston/ Cambridge (Ma.) ending up around the Windsor, Ct. area and going through places such as Natick, Ma., Ashland/Hopkinton/ Ma., Upton/ Grafton Ma. into Webster, Ma./ Thompson Ct., etc.    When the colonists later used this ancient cultural trail, they later renamed it "The Connecticut Path".

      The  article also goes on to point out that the selection (by Native people themselves) of colonial-era Praying Towns (a pre-cursor to the reservation system) were in towns such as the aforementioned, along the Great Trail.  The article also links in the theme of stone chambers, many of which are Native American (First Nations) in origin, and points out that the majority of Chambers found in this area are along these old towns/ sites that make up part of the area of the "Great Trail."

     It is also interesting how the Beehive shrine structure I found in Medway (near Holliston) is in close proximity to Pout Lane, which is an old Native Route going from Natick to Mendon, passing through Sherborn, Holliston, Medway, Milford, which was no doubt an extension of "The Great Trail" meant to go through an area that the main part of the trail did not directly go through.  I also remember hearing somewhere that the Sachem of Natick in colonial times also had a main village site in present-day Mendon, so his/their people must have been all around what is now present-day Holliston, Milford, etc.

    Anywhooz, here is the article about the Great Trail: 

                                                         http://www.towncrier.us/crierdetail.php?smenu=1&twindow=&sdetail=17860&mad=&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&recID=1430