The Grand View Place- Standing Stones & Boulder Row Alignments At the Highest Point In Milford, MA.

The Grand View Place- Standing Stones & Boulder Row Alignments At the Highest Point In Milford, MA.

If you follow this blog you might recall posts from last winter about stoneworks among the high rolling hills of Milford, MA.  in and around the powerlines, documenting some collapsed standing stones, perched boulder arrangements and the like.  I also got into the Native place name for this area (specifically pertaining to the rolling hills and granite ledges in Milford) which is Magomiskook (alt. Megumsquag, etc.)  This is translated as "The Grand View Place" or "the Grand View/ Great Rock Place", it has even been translated as "Great Place of the Standing Stones"- the general gist of these translations is about the same.  

I was able to locate one of my favorite spots around the Magomiskook area this summer- a ledge that now overlooks the I-495 corridor.  This is one of the highest ledges in the area, and features a stone row of boulders and some standing stones, and this is hands down the most awesome, highest panoramic view of the area I have seen so far- to the left one can see Bellingham and perhaps beyond- straight ahead you can see the buildings, steeples and cathedrals of the churches in downtown Milford. What is funny is that the steeple of a church is meant to penetrate skywards; signifying some religious act.  Well, up on these natural high ledges is the Native American church, looking down upon the rest of the world.  No need to be over-industrious and build when nature has already provided for us a means to an end, and has already done a better job of it than what people want to build up anyway.  Also, one can also see into the hills of the surrounding towns of Mendon and Upton, and perhaps beyond.  With so much modern development it is a good thing that such places still do exist.

So here we go.  First is a view of the Standing Stones.  It was sunny out so the rocks from certain angles have a black hue to them, because the light was being reflected off of the stones.

Standing Stones 1 & 2:

Standing Stone 1 to the right, middle boulder of the boulder row in the back:

Close up of Standing Stone 1:

Standing Stone 2 from different angles:

Nice "obelisk" shape from this angle of Standing Stone 2- in the background paralell is Standing Stone 1 obscured by brush:

Standing Stone 2 on left & some of the boulders in the stone row:

Pics of the boulders in the stone row:

Standing Stone 2 and middle boulder in row:

Showing off some of the view- one can see better w/ the naked eye than with the camera I was using (buildings, hill outlines, etc.)

Being on a high ledge, makes me think of the below picture from the book "The Soul of the Indian" by Charles A. Eastman who was Sioux, to be educated by the white man later in life.  In fact, his grandson (now an elderly man himself- maybe 70's) was just in the Milford area a few years back to run the Boston Marathon (which is awesome because I am a former Boston Marathon runner myself, having ran as a "bandit runner" and finished just under 4 hours in 2009.)  A quote from the book "The Soul of the Indian":

"Being a natural man, the Indian was intensely poetical.  He would deem it sacrilege to build a house for Him who may be met face to face in the mysterious, shadowy aisles of the primeval forest, or on the sunlit bosom of virgin prairies, upon dizzy spirals and pinnacles of naked rock, and yonder in the jeweled vault of the night sky!  He who enrobes Himself in filmy veils of cloud, there on the rim of the visible world where our Great-Grandfather Sun kindles his evening camp-fire, He who rides upon the rigorous wind of the north, or breathes forth His spirit upon aromatic southern airs, whose war-canoe is launched upon majestic rivers and inland seas- He needs no cathedral!"

In the next paragraph it is said-

"The solitary communion with the Unseen which was the highest expression of our religious life.... may better be interpreted as 'conciousness of the divine'."