Masonville and Afton

I was inspired to start this blog because I was reading the Rockpiles blog and I saw the power that it had to document the existence of native stonework and for it's power to connect people that are interested in this topic. I was please when a new reader "Kathy" contacted me with information about stone piles near her home in Masonville and Afton.








I love the dog in this picture:)









This appears to be a cluster of stone cairns. If I remember correctly Kathy said this group is located near a spring that runs into the Delaware River.




Kathy also sent pictures of some beautiful stone walls found in the same area. Although I do suspect that native people built stone walls I doubt that these are pre-columbian. 1000 years of trees falling, etc... would probably have deteriorated a narrow (compared to a pile) wall. Its hard to understand the function of a stone pile but it is easy to understand the function of a stone wall. That makes it easier to justify why a pioneer or farmer would spend time creating them. I think there are two reasons why stone walls are often found near stone cairns. One, there are usually lots of rocks in the ground where cairns are built. Two, farmers probably moved existing cairns and built walls with the stones.


My hope is that Kathy and others in upstate New York can document all of these stone structures before they are lost forever.