Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Historical Jasper Rock in Holliston, MA. -Beyond History - An Ancient Propped Boulder



Historical Jasper Rock in Holliston, MA. -Beyond History - An Ancient Propped Boulder

This is a historicaly significant rock in Holliston, MA.  It is known as Jasper's Rock.  The story is, that sometime in the 18th (or maybe early 19th?) century, a young farm boy named Jasper would come to this rock on a high ledge and light a fire at a certain time every-day, so his father working on his farm around a mile away would know that Jasper was okay and safe.  It is one of those stories that give character to the town's colonial history.  Today the grand view from this ledge is partially blocked out from forest having grown back.

When I visited this site recently I noticed that the history of Jasper's Rock is much older than the colonial story of young Jasper.  For this rock is a propped boulder, a silent sentinel that has been at it's post for thousands of years.  Time changes not, for all things change with time.  This rock has seen it all, and still it is propped today on it's ledge, in it's eternal brightness: 




This angle shows the historical marker designating it "Jasper's Rock.":


1 comment:

  1. Jasper Adams was here at the time of King Philip's War - 1675 - and grazed the livestock - sheep or cows - on this land. He was from Midfield, and had to return there when his father was killed during that war. Abney Morse, who first revealed the story of Jasper, probably embellished it somewhat because he was challenged by Holliston's paucity of historical lore! John Mason Batchelder wrote about Jasper's Rock, but seemed to imply that the actual signal fire that Jasper lit each night (to signal his father in Medfield that all was well) was actually done on a "rude square piece of traprock" located a short distance from this rock. Jasper's rock was used for surveying purposes. There's a notch in the rock near it's right hand corner, visible on the top.

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