Growing up in Maine I was taught all of this by my farming father that grew up from a family that goes back to the settling days. We had rock wall on our property that divided our land from our neighbors. Tall enough to keep cows in. And some farmers had huge rock wall spots where it was the dump area for rocks every year as we picked rocks from our fields before planting season. Those areas would be all smaller rocks. I did always marvel as a child how huge the rock wall rocks were and how without the equipment we have today, the farmers of that day built these walls. It’s truly an impressive thing!
I'm from central Massachusetts by the Quabbin Reservoir.. during my research of this and surrounding areas I've found quite a few stone chambers, beehive and rectangular shaped with corbelled walls and large flat slabs for the roof.. some walls have small niches built into the ends of them. I found a wall with a small chamber you could barely get into built into the end of one.. Balanced boulders..Underground chambers as well..Prayer rock piles scattered along a line.. all in this small area of New England..Any in your area?
Really wonderful information, thanks! In addition to these facts you've listed, it's important to consider that the population of New England in 1700 was about 100,000. Further facts are needed to examine why there are so many walls. We've measured 250,000 miles of walls so far.
I was testing some land in Littleton MA for new homes. The neighbors as usual start in with... there will be to much traffic.. there will be disbursement of wild life but it was ok for them to have homes in that area. To the point they call every department they can to ultimately cause the development more risk and more money to develop that is passed along to the end user who pays more for the homes which in turn raises the value of the neighbors properties that were causing all the havoc and their taxes to go up. In this case there was a 10ft high pile of filed stone. Probably 20 ft around. The neighbors put a stop to the project calling all departments in the state and town until (at our cost) they had have UMASS do a 6 month study on wtf is that pile there for. It turned out it was not a sacred Indian burial ground like the neighbors said it was. It was the fella who owned the land at the time that foundations where being 1st built on homes. he stock piled and sold foundation rocks.
Growing up in Maine I was taught all of this by my farming father that grew up from a family that goes back to the settling days. We had rock wall on our property that divided our land from our neighbors. Tall enough to keep cows in. And some farmers had huge rock wall spots where it was the dump area for rocks every year as we picked rocks from our fields before planting season. Those areas would be all smaller rocks. I did always marvel as a child how huge the rock wall rocks were and how without the equipment we have today, the farmers of that day built these walls. It’s truly an impressive thing!
I'm from central Massachusetts by the Quabbin Reservoir.. during my research of this and surrounding areas I've found quite a few stone chambers, beehive and rectangular shaped with corbelled walls and large flat slabs for the roof.. some walls have small niches built into the ends of them. I found a wall with a small chamber you could barely get into built into the end of one.. Balanced boulders..Underground chambers as well..Prayer rock piles scattered along a line.. all in this small area of New England..Any in your area?
That's where the expression "can't see the forest from the trees comes from".
This is like Italian barbershop history class, and I'm here for it
Thought this guy was a sleeper. Glad I watched and probably most interesting yet.
Really wonderful information, thanks! In addition to these facts you've listed, it's important to consider that the population of New England in 1700 was about 100,000. Further facts are needed to examine why there are so many walls. We've measured 250,000 miles of walls so far.
I always wondered how they moved the stones and now I know. Thank you!
awesome video
Why do you think they’re only 300 years old?
Great job!!
I was testing some land in Littleton MA for new homes. The neighbors as usual start in with... there will be to much traffic.. there will be disbursement of wild life but it was ok for them to have homes in that area. To the point they call every department they can to ultimately cause the development more risk and more money to develop that is passed along to the end user who pays more for the homes which in turn raises the value of the neighbors properties that were causing all the havoc and their taxes to go up. In this case there was a 10ft high pile of filed stone. Probably 20 ft around. The neighbors put a stop to the project calling all departments in the state and town until (at our cost) they had have UMASS do a 6 month study on wtf is that pile there for. It turned out it was not a sacred Indian burial ground like the neighbors said it was. It was the fella who owned the land at the time that foundations where being 1st built on homes. he stock piled and sold foundation rocks.
If you think the stone walls in New England, which there are over 240,000 miles of said walls, are only 300 years old, I’ve got a bridge to sell ya.
Modern research shows a huge percentage of the stone walls in New England were laid out during the sheep craze between about 1810 and 1840.