Agassiz Rock & Boulder Arrangements- Manchester, MA.

Agassiz Rock & Boulder Arrangements- Manchester, MA.

  This is the rock that is featured on the cover of the book Manitou by Mavor and Dix.  It is a large boulder that is propped up, located on a ledge with a spectacular over-look/ view-

Agassiz Rock from different angles-

Note the gap/ niche and the triangular shape of the wedged stone-

Here is the cover of the Mavor and Dix book.  This pic looks perhaps inverted, and they definitly had better success with lighting than I did, they probably picked a better time of year to visit the site-

Looking down, here is the trail that leads up to the ledge with the boulder placements-

More boulder placements lined up and a view of the ledge over-look:

Visible prop stone under boulder A-

Grand view-

More placed boulders-

Large collapsed Standing Stone on the ledge amongst the boulders, about 10 feet in length:

Large boulder out-crop located along the trails-

The Other Day, Another Milford MA. Wildfire- Let's Get Rid of Echo Lake Dam

The Other Day, Another Milford MA. Wildfire + Thoughts On Echo Lake Dam

The other day there was another wild-fire in the conservation woods located by the Milford, Hopkinton and Holliston town lines.  These woods go by many names- Vietnam Bike Trail, Rocky Woods, College Rock, Fairbanks Conservation Land and the Upper Charles Trail.  Ever since I was a young kid I remember reports of fires in these woods.  In fact, this has probably been happening before I was born.

Some of these fires could be started by people either accidentally (cigarette butt, etc.) or on purpose.  I think they may have caught somebody, long ago, starting fires in those woods on purpose.  Anyway, I don't know about the origins of how these fires start, but I do have some thoughts on this subject.

Due to poor land stewardship it is no wonder that these fires spread like wild in these woods.  Everything under the sun, including invasive species is allowed to grow up in these woods.  They don't call it the "Vietnam trails" for nothing- in spring/ summer it is literally like a jungle in there.  Most of the time the people dealing with these fires don't have a clue about land stewardship.  Even some of these trails in these woods are obscured by brush growing up on the sides.  This is by the Echo Lake area, and a place where many stone mounds and cairns, as well as unique stone-works such as the drum stone are located.  This land would have primarily of been cleared by indigenous land stewardship practices before Harvard University aggresively purchased the land in this area, perceivably usurping it from Native people in 1715, well after King Philip's War of 1675/76, which opened the land up to whites.  

Further, there is a large dam up by Echo Lake.  This area is really the headwaters of the Charles, Blackstone and Sudbury Rivers, but because the dam is there, the water tables are low, and water does not flow at all anymore in some of the stream beds in the area, and only some of the time (winter/ spring) in other stream beds.  The water in the reservoir created by the Echo Lake dam used to be the town of Milford's water drinking supply.  It got contaminated with bacteria or something a few years back and is no longer a source of drinking water.  In other words, there is no longer a need for the dam to even be there.

I say, if anyone is reading this, that it is time to dis-assemble the dam located by Echo Lake.  The water here is no longer used as a source for human consumption in the modern world.  It is time to let the water flow once again, bringing back the natural balance of this area.  I urge people to do the right thing.  By doing this, the water will flow once again in the dried up stream beds.  Also, when more water flows back to this area there will be more of a natural buffer in defense of wildfires, not allowing them to spread like crazy.  They only spread right now because the land is too dry and the water tables are low because of the Echo Lake dam.  Let's bring back the natural balance- this is the best defense against wildfires.  Not to mention with the flowing waters there will be a re-introduction of native species to the area (this is already slowly happening, but would happen more so with the waters flowing again.)  Getting rid of the dam would be a win-win situation for the environment and for the prevention of the spread of wildfires.     

Milford, MA. Along A Brook Pt. 4- Hillside Cairns & Final

Milford, MA. Along A Brook Pt. 4- Hillside Cairns & Final

Upstream, another semi-circular boulder enclosure (see pt. 1)-

The cairns.  Stone slab placement-

These cairns were all inter-related.  One of those sites that looks like it could be the stone remains/ ruins of some kind of a structure-

Wall-like-

Milford MA. Along A Brook Pt. 3- Stone Wall Features

Milford MA. Along A Brook Pt. 3- Stone Wall Features

Alot of stone walls in the woods of this area are perfect examples of pre-colonial stone walls- running alongside brooks, up steep ledges no farmer would settle, leading to openings or underground rooms in bedrock, enclosing areas with large stone mounds/ effigies and cairns, alongside swamps, etc.  The walls themselves seem "archaic" and are not constructed in the way a colonial or later person would build a wall (which is more of a "boxed" shape).  

The statistics support that many of these stone walls are probably pre-colonial in origin.  In the late 19th century when the survey shows more stone walls in this region than can go around the circumference of the Earth ten times, the case for pre-colonial stone walls has to be taken seriously.  We are looking at walls that must have taken thousands of generations of a continuous tradition to build.  Not to mention the walls themselves usually have manitou/ effigy stones and many other unusual characteristics about them- gaps or wind holes that had a ceremonial significance etc.

This section of the wall is on the upper banks of the brook, perhaps retaining the water during a different time when the water tables were higher.  The wall also seems to be "fortifying" the hill.  In fact, this hill is not an esker or a drumlin, or another formation created by glacial activity.  The hill is also capped with "intellegent" boulder placements (not glacial erratics.)  Therefore, this whole hill that the wall fortifies could be an artificial hill of stone and earth (a giant NorthEastern Indian Mound.)-

Some of the placed boulders that cap the hill-

Off to a different section-

Unusual boulder formation next to the wall-

This is the end of a stone wall section over-looking the pond.  The end boulder/ termination stone is specially placed & unusually shaped-

Nearby section of the wall leading up to another unusually shaped boulder-

Close-up of boulder-

Split in the boulder-

  

More Stone Features Around Brook/ Pond Of Milford, MA. (Pt. 2) (More Stone Faces)

More Stone Features Around Brook/ Pond Of Milford, MA. (Pt. 2)

Note that this is within the "Greater Echo Lake Area" as I call it (Hopkinton, Milford, Holliston, Ashland, parts of Medway, Southborough, etc.)  A link to a post on the Echo Lake Stone Structure here- http://www.nativenewenglandstones.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-echo-lake-stone-lodge-chamber.html 

Stone Face 1 up on the hills over-looking the water/ grounds.  Note the triangular forehead/ crest, perhaps a top-knot hairstyle or maybe just the features depicted on the stone face for whatever reasons.  The face is very proud and content, a silent but powerful spirit over the grounds for ages-

An altar-stone or cap-stone capping an ancient man-made constructed mound-

Split boulder-

Stone face 2, definitly more triangular features.  Same type of white stone as Stone Face 1-

Rock- on rock above the brook-

On the shore of the brook is this amazing protruding boulder jutting up.  I climbed to the top of it for a nice view.  Very energetic.  View A-

B-

C-

D- a knocked over Standing Stone at the foot of the protruding boulder (base on the left, tip on the right)-

Another effigy worked out from a boulder and balanced on a small ledge on the shore of the brook.  Looks similar to the smaller balanced effigy from the same general area featured last post.  Turtle or bird-like: