As Finn, those stone walls made so much sense immediately. If there's one infinite crop in Finland's fields, it's rocks. Every year they emerge from the soil, no matter what.
I live in CT. There are stone walls everywhere in the woods here. It's so cool. It doesn't matter how deep into the woods you go, you still come across them.
@@chucklesthered2338 Seriously. The way I heard it was, when they plowed an area for farming they saved the rocks they had to remove for the plow and built up a wall around the perimeter with just those. For a small family plot that's still a few hundred stones about the size of a human head piled at between two and a half or three feet. This land was astronomically rocky if that's accurate.
Living in New England, it's easy to overlook the significance of stone walls. Yet, every so often, I pause and contemplate a stone wall that I see disappearing into the woods, reminding myself that each stone was deliberately placed by a human hand. Someone picked up the very stone I'm looking at, thought about its placement, and carefully positioned it in the wall. It may seem like a trivial observation, but it helps remind me that the land I'm standing on was cultivated by living, thinking individuals just like me.
I'm from the Gulf Coast and used to go everywhere. When I think of New England I think of rock walls. I see them in the woods off the road and you would never notice it in ones busy world. It's nice to know there are kindred spirits out there.
@@chipsdad5861 typical divide and conquer shill, you bots will try to drag down literally anything its honestly hilarious. Id say seek help but your a product of your environment and are functioning exactly the way they want.
I am doing the same in Mass. Connecting with previous builders from centuries ago is deeply satisfying. I've added to an abandoned run from one era - probably an unfinished sheep fence and in another area I've added some terraces along a Vernal Pool.
That is cool. I love rock walls. Now get mind around this. Every farmer in colonial New England, would have to have, been able to construct thousands of feet, of heavy stone walls, that go all the way to the bedrock. This is all, while trying to build houses, barns, plant crops, tend to livestock, defend the homestead from predators and native tribes. These farmers apparently did this in their spare time, or maybe for a few hours after church? I don't believe that. You built a good size wall yourself. Do you believe it?
Our family farm in Bristol Mills, Maine was from 1779-1973 ( 194 years). A land grant from my great- grandfathers duty as an officer during the revolutionary war. Ours was a 150 acre homestead, just across from the Bristol Mills dam and swimming hole. For several summers my older brother re-built many parts of the stone walls on the property back in the mid-later 1960's. At that time many stone walls were being damaged by snowmobilers climbing over them to access other properties. We had 110 acres on the farm and the other 40 acres were across the river and just down from the dam, where a mill was for many years. We visited Bristol Mills again in 2019, still just a quaint village.
Growing up in Mass. , we used to follow stone walls as kids, looking for dumpsites in which we would hunt for bottles. always amazed the stone walls were virtually everywhere.
I grew up in Ct. Our woods were littered with these stone walls as well. I hadn't realized that there was 75% deforestation in NE and that 50% of that was re-forested. Neat!
Yep...i found an old picture of the family town in Pennsylvania...currently forest as far as the eye can see...some of the biggest trees I've ever seen on the east coast. In the picture it is a barren wasteland as far as the eye can see. It looks like Nebraska with hills. Or Wyoming.
I had no idea that stone walls are not everywhere throughout the north east. Here in Pennsylvania they litter our woods, our countryside and farms. Many farmers still use the old stone walls as boundaries for their fields. I always find it amazing when I’m deep in the woods on some trail it seems no one has walked in a long time and I come upon a stone wall, long forgotten and stretching for what seems likes miles sometimes, and sometimes on very inhospitable ground, rocky and mountainous. Now I know they were likely sheep farmers! Amazing indeed.
I live in Middle Tennessee. The stone walls winding through some of our woods and hollers have always fascinated me. Since i was a young boy, I've always wondered what the lay of the land looked like back when some hardworking souls placed each rock upon another throughout the miles of walls I've discovered. It's so beautiful to see. Thank you for the video, it was insightful to say the least. 👍
I’m from Nova Scotia. We have stone walls here too. I’ve got them on my property. They are boundary walls for the most part. We were all New England at one time.
It would be a good idea to find some diversity of opinion, especially if the object of the video is analyzing natural history. She's obviously an expert on the stone walls of Maine but if you want to understand the situation, I think an ecologist could expand on the impacts of deforestation, or another historian to speak on how the sheep were introduced. I mean it really represents a permanent blow to Maine ecology and beyond. but I guess it's more fun to spin a romantic yarn. Maybe this is the american version of being an "expert" on stonehenge, or the pyramids.
@@wingdingdmetrius8025 Many founding Americans stated in notes & books that many stone walls were already here, and that Native Americans (Indians) said they did not build them.
This is very interesting. We have a farm here in Ireland and straight away I could see a little bit of home in Maine. We have endless amounts of stone walls here. I always appreciate how each stone was laid by a human long ago, and when we can, we rebuild the fallen walls. But as shown in the video, trees grow through them and they are a lot of work to maintain. A neighboring (abandoned) farm to ours has a large wooded area filled with stone walls for fields taken back by the trees. Two or three generations ago there were many families and farms in that area, all long gone. Lovely video and many thanks
New England has been my home for about 20 years, and one thing I really enjoy is discovering stone walls when we walk through the woods. You know it's New England when you see rocks and beaver lodges!
Wow! I never would have guessed that the history of stone walls (and the agricultural development and economics of farming and forestry in Maine) would be so interesting! Excellent job on this; thank you! 🏆🏆
Thank you, I loved exploring the southern Maine woods when growing up. My wife's grandmother lived in the 3rd oldest house in York county and behind it there was a complete village of stone walls and foundations. Incidentally the road in front of the house was originally a trolley track. I no longer live in Maine but here in northern NH I have found many old works like mines, quarries, logging railroads etc. I love to explore them all. There is a quarry near my eastern border that was used for my great great grandfathers house foundation. There is also a cellar hole from the civil war time when the man who lived there left and never came back. Thanks again.
I live in central/west Jersey and these litter the woods surrounding my house. I’ve always wondered about them and could never imagine finding such an informative video on the topic, let alone the prevalence of these rock walls in the NE area.
This is exactly why I am a sustaining member of @mainepublic. Thank you for teaching me about one of the favorite things in my own backyard. Please, please, please more episodes like this.
Hi Greg, I saw your comment before I commented, so thought I'd let you know about my comment, about things in our own back yards. Check out my slideshows. Warning, it's kinda shocking. Maybe Cheryl, being a Phd and Master Naturalist, might do an episode on some big meteorites that damaged some big trees and left glass smears on the damaged trees. Pretty fascinating, and easy to see/imagine. I'd make a cool video, but I'm too busy... Go Maine Public Classical!
I'm from Montreal in Quebec, which is just north of New England, and I spent my childhood running around on walls like these. I grew up in a suburb that was gradually spreading out into what had previously been Farm fields, and if you headed out in any direction you'd be Crossing one of these walls.
Our property in Albion, Maine had several stone walls. As children we loved to examine the stones because, even though we lived in central Maine, about 30 miles north-east of Augusta, we found loads of sea shell fossils. Many hours spent wondering how they got there.
I live in the woods, central Maine. We have numerous old stone walls with mammoth glacial rocks, peppered with huge piles of basketball-sized rocks. I imagine many of these were stacked by hand, and the larger ones moved with animals. I've also found several large rocks that were deliberately cut, with lines of holes still visible. I often think of the amount of effort it all must have taken. It is a beautiful place to spend time.
I always feel my walk in the woods is complete when I "find" a stone wall. Like you, I try to imagine it being built and for what purpose. You mention that they are in constant flux. They are also in constant decline. All the organisms living on them break the stone down to sand and mixed with organic material becomes soil. Thank you for posting this extremely interesting story.
Thank you very much for sharing your research and experience on this topic with us. It was one of the first things I admired when we moved to the TriState area from San Diego, California.
This goes up north through vermont into canada quebecs eastern townships as well. When farmers cleared their fields they used the stones to set their property lines.
What a great, clear and concise explanation of the stone wall phenomenon. I’m in Massachusetts and I’m blessed to have a stone wall in my backyard patch of woods (most likely deforested at some point).
Im metal detecting every weekend all over new england, NH, ME, VT, MA, CT . I love the stonewalls and stone work I find in the woods. We find many historical finds, from George Washington buttons to early axes and spanish silver are found near stonewalls. And your in the woods.
My old house on depot st in north Attleboro it’s the house at the end of the cul-de-sac. It had an abandoned railway that extended into Pawtucket, and it was once a dairy farm. We learned that it was from a baler gathering hay into bales in our back yard. Also recall that same stone wall surrounding the area
Mine acts as a wagon road between the walls separating two fields. The forest has reclaimed it so, naturally, it is now a game trail. Deer super hwy...no moose here in PA...but I'm sure they'd love it.
I live in rural Connecticut and our property was once a field for farming. We are surrounded by stone walls. Our property came with ready-made fencing.
Super cool! I'm from the Mid-Atlantic, so not New England but close, & we have some stone walls as well in my township. I didn't know they were really a New England (& evidently New England adjacent) thing, I just figured they were most places, but now that I think about it, I never saw any when I lived in the Northwest. Even if it's not a Jersey thing per se, it still instills a certain regional pride in me to learn that these things I see everyday & walk over without a second thought are actually such a unique aspect of the local history
A SALUTE to your homework! Fascinating. Similar stone walls are scattered through out the Texas hill country. They’ve been around long enough that their placement reflects a former landscape that has eroded away since when the walls were built over a hundred years ago. A hundred years has a noticeable effect on terrains and land forms!
“It’s got a long rock wall with a big oak tree at the north end. It’s like something out of a Robert Frost poem. It’s where I asked my wife to marry me. We went there for a picnic and made love under that oak and I asked and she said yes. Promise me, Red. If you ever get out… find that spot. At the base of that wall, you’ll find a rock that has no earthly business in a Maine hayfield. Piece of black, volcanic glass. There’s something buried under it I want you to have.”
I grew up in Springfield MA & our 7th grade Social Studies teacher in 1961 told us that at the time Cows still outnumbered People in the state of New Hampshire.
Good video. I'm in NE CT. Same here. Most wall building stopped after, the summer that never was, and many moved to Ohio. The parallel walls were also to delineate public roads. My town road is 2 rods(33') wide and was deeded to the town before the revolution. In the northern part of our town is a section of the old Kings Highway that is 3 rods wide. It is overgrown but protected. My major advisor in Grad School(UCONN) did a study on stonewall dams. Building the stone wall and back filling it saved time for the builders before there was powered construction equipment. Read some of Eric Sloanes' books about early New England for an interesting and relaxing read. Good Luck, Rick
There was an article in the NY Times years ago and it described how a portion of stone wall had to be taken down for access to remove some trees here in Connecticut,, the homeowner who was described as "handy" attempted to rebuild the wall after the tree work was completed and the article documented how the homeowner tried unsuccessfully numerous times to rebuild the wall which was originally laid up by hand all of 100 years ago,, finally they located an old farmer who came in and put the stones back perfectly
Central Franklin County, central Massa-choose-its, here. In the Quabbin Valley/Pioneer Valley town of Wendell, state forest, stone walls throughout. My 1.8 acre has 3’ tall /wide walls on 3 sides, used for livestock, in the 1880’s, and not built upon til, 1965.
Stone walls are all over New England, not just Maine. Stone walls were built as land was cleared. Early land owners and surveyors were extremely accurate laying out boundaries using rudimentary tools.
I live in the Catskills of New York and have always been fascinated by stone walls. I always thought the two parallel walls were for wagons (early roads). Thanks for the great overview!
I have a lot of stone walls on my NW Pennsylvanian hilltop. And sometimes piles of stones, too.this land was settled in mid to late 1800s, and the rocks are smaller, but they are otherwise very similar to new englands' walls.
I'm a CT resident and hiker. There are so many rock walls out in the woods it's just a part of the landscape. I like the different degrees of sophistication and speculating what came first. I always wondered what the forests were like prior to deforestation
I agree that most of the stone walls were built by european settler farmers. But there are claims that there were earlier walls that were there prior to the arrival of the Europeans. I have not seen any peer review archeologists supporting these claims except for some of the ancient arranged stones associated with the ancient red paint people habitations and burials that are found near shore lines.
The first generation of settlers needed to take the stones out of the land to make way for crops. But as New englanders know the stones keep coming to the surface.
When I was stationed in New England a very common sense explanation I learned from the locals, was that that the stones reappeared each spring being forced up frozen thaw. The farm folks would have to go out into their fields each spring and remove the newly upthrust stones before they could cultivate the land for produce or livestock husbandry. Of course, they would take the stones to their nearest boundary or section line and stack them thereby creating fences or boundary lines to keep most pesky critters out of their fields. Though rare today, there were many land titles that relied on these stone edifices for deeding surveys.
Always a great place to hunt Partridge, follow Deer trails. I have seen many Pine Marten, Fisher, Weasels and everything they hunt in and around stone walls. Born in 1947 and they have drawn me to them all around Maine.
...plus mine acts as a wagon road between the walls of opposing fields. The forest has reclaimed it so, naturally, it is now a game trail. Super constant source of ticks and an even better place for them to wait for their next host. I have all the diseases...probably.
For sure...im surrounded by them in the Poconos right now. I imagine they're not much different aside from the local source rock. Many are probably identical except for the course that nature has taken since they were constructed.
these stone walls, which are all over western maine because of old sheep farming, are the best places to find forest soil while doing minimal damage to the forest. Find a nice run in a hardwood dominated forest and run the edge, pulling up all leaf mat that has developed going back into the stone cracks. Don't pull it off the wall more than 12 inches, throw leaves back down against the wall.....do it again in 20 years.....screen it, ad a hint of lime and wood ash, presto, grow anything, especially of you use compost tea on top........ yeah, use leaf mold soil for that too.
Someone farmed there for sustenance. Usually built by Irish paupers. Most of the 17th & 18th century. The northern new England towns largest crop was Potash. Which was exported to grease the wheels and cogs of the wool and blossoming cotton industries. Many towns had Irish "laborers" that lived on the far outskirts of the villages. Potash cauldrons were imported from England. Potash is the product of cooking trees in massive cast iron cooking pots. A mix of readily available birch, maple, oak, and other hardwoods would be cooked down to ash.
I grew up in Pownal and climbed Bradbury Mountain many times. There was a huge sand ridge behind the house I grew up in, and it was obvious that it was used as a source of sand. And, across the street was a private quarry, (now filled in.) It was a source of large step stones and foundations for houses and the one-room school in town.
Iam a Fin living in Maine all my life most stone walls have a 3ft. Deep Base where they put all the small rocks that’s why they have stood the test of time
I noticed this in PA. I thought I had an endless supply of large stones right where I wanted them...but it's just a one layer cladding. I didn't want to destroy as much wall as was going to be necessary to get the quantity of stones I needed...plus I was going to have to haul them much farther. I wonder what the process was. I guess they just built 2 walls close to each other and then filled the center with the small ones to lock them together as it built up? Also a good way to use up the small ones that normally wouldn't be structurally useful.
There's no 'sheep' connection', these walls were here long before any sheep or people were imported from Europe. This video seems like racist colonial erasure of native history.
Very nicely done. Informative and interesting. I enjoyed the background music. Is it something I can down load from the internet so I can listen to it? If so, please point me in the right direction.
I grew up in eastern Maine on my grandparents farm and there were, and still are, stone walls all over the 100 acre farm. They were generally just inside the wooded areas around the hay fields, presumably picked from what were originally blueberry fields in the long distant past. I made some interesting finds in the refuse piles that often accompanied the stone piles and walls. Glass bottles, old metal tools and I even found an old Ford Model T that a large pine tree had grown up through.
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As Finn, those stone walls made so much sense immediately. If there's one infinite crop in Finland's fields, it's rocks. Every year they emerge from the soil, no matter what.
And it's too damned much work to carry them any farther than absolutely necessary.
@@eQualizeri the remnants of the buildings, below.
@@jamesn.economou9922nope. Not in Maine. The soil is very rocky. It's not old buried buildings, how silly.
the rocks were smaller then@@jennifercheney4353
I live in CT. There are stone walls everywhere in the woods here. It's so cool. It doesn't matter how deep into the woods you go, you still come across them.
The only reason why you find so many stone walls in the New England area is... there was a lot of stones lying around.
@@chucklesthered2338 There still are. I can dig a hole without hitting one within seconds.
I have a pet rock...... it's very obedient..... I tell to stay and it listens
@@chucklesthered2338 Seriously. The way I heard it was, when they plowed an area for farming they saved the rocks they had to remove for the plow and built up a wall around the perimeter with just those. For a small family plot that's still a few hundred stones about the size of a human head piled at between two and a half or three feet. This land was astronomically rocky if that's accurate.
@@morganrobinson8042 Just north East of Owen sound is about 50 50 sand stones...as big as basket balls Mountains of drummlins long valleys,
Living in New England, it's easy to overlook the significance of stone walls. Yet, every so often, I pause and contemplate a stone wall that I see disappearing into the woods, reminding myself that each stone was deliberately placed by a human hand. Someone picked up the very stone I'm looking at, thought about its placement, and carefully positioned it in the wall. It may seem like a trivial observation, but it helps remind me that the land I'm standing on was cultivated by living, thinking individuals just like me.
Oh you pause and contemplate do you---pompass ass
Bless you god sir / Ma’m…there’s not very many of us left that hold your obvious calibre…🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
The rocks were begrudgingly gather with sweat and blood as a matter of survival, however it is easy to romantisize the walls now that they are built.
I'm from the Gulf Coast and used to go everywhere. When I think of New England I think of rock walls. I see them in the woods off the road and you would never notice it in ones busy world. It's nice to know there are kindred spirits out there.
@@chipsdad5861 typical divide and conquer shill, you bots will try to drag down literally anything its honestly hilarious. Id say seek help but your a product of your environment and are functioning exactly the way they want.
It blows my mind to think about running out of trees in Maine.
I love how many trees are all over the state. It is absolutely breathtaking.
Because it's BS
I did my part in Maine to continue this tradition. I built 300 feet of standing stone walls in my yard and gardens.
I am doing the same in Mass. Connecting with previous builders from centuries ago is deeply satisfying. I've added to an abandoned run from one era - probably an unfinished sheep fence and in another area I've added some terraces along a Vernal Pool.
Respect
Wow. That’s really high!
That is cool. I love rock walls. Now get mind around this. Every farmer in colonial New England, would have to have, been able to construct thousands of feet, of heavy stone walls, that go all the way to the bedrock. This is all, while trying to build houses, barns, plant crops, tend to livestock, defend the homestead from predators and native tribes. These farmers apparently did this in their spare time, or maybe for a few hours after church? I don't believe that. You built a good size wall yourself. Do you believe it?
My son and I are re-working some stone walls on our property in rural Massachusetts. It is a hard but rewarding task.
Our family farm in Bristol Mills, Maine was from 1779-1973 ( 194 years). A land grant from my great- grandfathers duty as an officer during the revolutionary war. Ours was a 150 acre homestead, just across from the Bristol Mills dam and swimming hole. For several summers my older brother re-built many parts of the stone walls on the property back in the mid-later 1960's. At that time many stone walls were being damaged by snowmobilers climbing over them to access other properties. We had 110 acres on the farm and the other 40 acres were across the river and just down from the dam, where a mill was for many years. We visited Bristol Mills again in 2019, still just a quaint village.
Growing up in Mass. , we used to follow stone walls as kids, looking for dumpsites in which we would hunt for bottles. always amazed the stone walls were virtually everywhere.
I grew up in Ct. Our woods were littered with these stone walls as well. I hadn't realized that there was 75% deforestation in NE and that 50% of that was re-forested. Neat!
It's easy to forget this natural evolution of economies
Yep...i found an old picture of the family town in Pennsylvania...currently forest as far as the eye can see...some of the biggest trees I've ever seen on the east coast.
In the picture it is a barren wasteland as far as the eye can see. It looks like Nebraska with hills. Or Wyoming.
I had no idea that stone walls are not everywhere throughout the north east.
Here in Pennsylvania they litter our woods, our countryside and farms. Many farmers still use the old stone walls as boundaries for their fields. I always find it amazing when I’m deep in the woods on some trail it seems no one has walked in a long time and I come upon a stone wall, long forgotten and stretching for what seems likes miles sometimes, and sometimes on very inhospitable ground, rocky and mountainous. Now I know they were likely sheep farmers! Amazing indeed.
I live in Middle Tennessee. The stone walls winding through some of our woods and hollers have always fascinated me. Since i was a young boy, I've always wondered what the lay of the land looked like back when some hardworking souls placed each rock upon another throughout the miles of walls I've discovered. It's so beautiful to see. Thank you for the video, it was insightful to say the least. 👍
Y’all com bac na here 😂😂😂
I’m from Nova Scotia. We have stone walls here too. I’ve got them on my property. They are boundary walls for the most part. We were all New England at one time.
I live in Cape Breton, every old farm or homestead has stone walls. It’s easily my favourite part of living here
@@stillinfamous sable river
@@johnransom1146 I’ve never been (typically caper lol), but I’ve only heard good things about!
Annapolis valley 😊
I'm on the other end in PA and they are here, too.
Archaeologist here from RI. Glad all new Englanders can come together to appreciate shared heritage
👍👍
William Jarvis actually never got permission to import the Merino Sheep. He smuggled about 200 sheep in secret and kicked the whole thing off.
It would be a good idea to find some diversity of opinion, especially if the object of the video is analyzing natural history. She's obviously an expert on the stone walls of Maine but if you want to understand the situation, I think an ecologist could expand on the impacts of deforestation, or another historian to speak on how the sheep were introduced. I mean it really represents a permanent blow to Maine ecology and beyond. but I guess it's more fun to spin a romantic yarn. Maybe this is the american version of being an "expert" on stonehenge, or the pyramids.
@@wingdingdmetrius8025 Many founding Americans stated in notes & books that many stone walls were already here, and that Native Americans (Indians) said they did not build them.
Not all heroes wear capes
This is very interesting. We have a farm here in Ireland and straight away I could see a little bit of home in Maine. We have endless amounts of stone walls here. I always appreciate how each stone was laid by a human long ago, and when we can, we rebuild the fallen walls. But as shown in the video, trees grow through them and they are a lot of work to maintain. A neighboring (abandoned) farm to ours has a large wooded area filled with stone walls for fields taken back by the trees. Two or three generations ago there were many families and farms in that area, all long gone. Lovely video and many thanks
Cattle lanes are very cool to see
I'm from New York and hike in Maine from time to time. I've always been fascinated by the stone walls. This is great
NYC !
New England has been my home for about 20 years, and one thing I really enjoy is discovering stone walls when we walk through the woods. You know it's New England when you see rocks and beaver lodges!
That is really interesting and we are lucky to have them
Wow! I never would have guessed that the history of stone walls (and the agricultural development and economics of farming and forestry in Maine) would be so interesting! Excellent job on this; thank you! 🏆🏆
Thank you, I loved exploring the southern Maine woods when growing up. My wife's grandmother lived in the 3rd oldest house in York county and behind it there was a complete village of stone walls and foundations. Incidentally the road in front of the house was originally a trolley track. I no longer live in Maine but here in northern NH I have found many old works like mines, quarries, logging railroads etc. I love to explore them all. There is a quarry near my eastern border that was used for my great great grandfathers house foundation. There is also a cellar hole from the civil war time when the man who lived there left and never came back. Thanks again.
I loved hiking in Maine and finding old stone walls!
I live in central/west Jersey and these litter the woods surrounding my house. I’ve always wondered about them and could never imagine finding such an informative video on the topic, let alone the prevalence of these rock walls in the NE area.
👍👍
Hell of a lot of work in those walls! No hydraulics. I live in PA and stone walls always amazed me in the effort those people put forth.
👍👍
I have no connection to Maine whatsoever, but this is so very interesting. This lady knows her stuff.
There's miles of stone walls in Upper Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess, and several other counties in NY.
I look at all the walls running through the woods of Connecticut and always wondered about the people who built them. Awesome video!
Well, the tribes who built them in CT are not the same tribes that built them in ME....
This is exactly why I am a sustaining member of @mainepublic. Thank you for teaching me about one of the favorite things in my own backyard. Please, please, please more episodes like this.
Hi Greg, I saw your comment before I commented, so thought I'd let you know about my comment, about things in our own back yards. Check out my slideshows. Warning, it's kinda shocking. Maybe Cheryl, being a Phd and Master Naturalist, might do an episode on some big meteorites that damaged some big trees and left glass smears on the damaged trees. Pretty fascinating, and easy to see/imagine. I'd make a cool video, but I'm too busy... Go Maine Public Classical!
I'm from Montreal in Quebec, which is just north of New England, and I spent my childhood running around on walls like these. I grew up in a suburb that was gradually spreading out into what had previously been Farm fields, and if you headed out in any direction you'd be Crossing one of these walls.
My sister lives in Maine, and this video is good evidence of how exciting Maine can be.
They are fascinating when imagining the original walls and the variety of use; all built for practical purposes .
Our property in Albion, Maine had several stone walls. As children we loved to examine the stones because, even though we lived in central Maine, about 30 miles north-east of Augusta, we found loads of sea shell fossils. Many hours spent wondering how they got there.
I live in the woods, central Maine. We have numerous old stone walls with mammoth glacial rocks, peppered with huge piles of basketball-sized rocks. I imagine many of these were stacked by hand, and the larger ones moved with animals. I've also found several large rocks that were deliberately cut, with lines of holes still visible. I often think of the amount of effort it all must have taken. It is a beautiful place to spend time.
Practicality and permanence...the way we use to think, and live, and look how beautiful that was...
Symbols of years and years of work. I think they’re beautiful.
They don’t rot for boundaries
This is what Maine PBS should be!!!!
Totally agree
I feel so lucky to have on of these beautiful stone walls surrounding my house.
I always feel my walk in the woods is complete when I "find" a stone wall. Like you, I try to imagine it being built and for what purpose. You mention that they are in constant flux. They are also in constant decline. All the organisms living on them break the stone down to sand and mixed with organic material becomes soil. Thank you for posting this extremely interesting story.
I never knew this was primarily a New England thing. I just assumed any place in the USA with rocky soil had them. Very cool.
Thank you very much for sharing your research and experience on this topic with us. It was one of the first things I admired when we moved to the TriState area from San Diego, California.
Definitely interesting to drive down the highways and see what type of local stone is around. We have always loved them…and built several.
👍👍
Lovely, lovely filmography and thought provoking testimony. Here's to a revival of dry stone architecture
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This goes up north through vermont into canada quebecs eastern townships as well. When farmers cleared their fields they used the stones to set their property lines.
What a great, clear and concise explanation of the stone wall phenomenon. I’m in Massachusetts and I’m blessed to have a stone wall in my backyard patch of woods (most likely deforested at some point).
Growing up in Massachusetts 45 minutes south of Boston we had stone walls everywhere.
Im metal detecting every weekend all over new england, NH, ME, VT, MA, CT . I love the stonewalls and stone work I find in the woods. We find many historical finds, from George Washington buttons to early axes and spanish silver are found near stonewalls. And your in the woods.
One thing i didn't hear you mention is that many farms were abandoned after the civil war
My old house on depot st in north Attleboro it’s the house at the end of the cul-de-sac. It had an abandoned railway that extended into Pawtucket, and it was once a dairy farm. We learned that it was from a baler gathering hay into bales in our back yard. Also recall that same stone wall surrounding the area
That was really cool. I love history. Thanks. Cheers from Montreal
The discovery of oil for home heating was also a huge factor in the reforestation of Maine.
Thanks for showing . Chipmunks love those walls you're saying. Do deers and mooses and bears love them too? I wonder.
Mine acts as a wagon road between the walls separating two fields. The forest has reclaimed it so, naturally, it is now a game trail.
Deer super hwy...no moose here in PA...but I'm sure they'd love it.
I live in rural Connecticut and our property was once a field for farming. We are surrounded by stone walls. Our property came with ready-made fencing.
Stone walls are a part of life in New England. I have one in my front yard. They're something we take for granted.
After visiting in late September. The number of rock walls we saw was noted. Thanks! Loved it.
Super cool! I'm from the Mid-Atlantic, so not New England but close, & we have some stone walls as well in my township. I didn't know they were really a New England (& evidently New England adjacent) thing, I just figured they were most places, but now that I think about it, I never saw any when I lived in the Northwest. Even if it's not a Jersey thing per se, it still instills a certain regional pride in me to learn that these things I see everyday & walk over without a second thought are actually such a unique aspect of the local history
A SALUTE to your homework! Fascinating. Similar stone walls are scattered through out the Texas hill country. They’ve been around long enough that their placement reflects a former landscape that has eroded away since when the walls were built over a hundred years ago. A hundred years has a noticeable effect on terrains and land forms!
“It’s got a long rock wall with a big oak tree at the north end. It’s like something out of a Robert Frost poem. It’s where I asked my wife to marry me. We went there for a picnic and made love under that oak and I asked and she said yes. Promise me, Red. If you ever get out… find that spot. At the base of that wall, you’ll find a rock that has no earthly business in a Maine hayfield. Piece of black, volcanic glass. There’s something buried under it I want you to have.”
Thank you, this was wonderful!
I grew up in Springfield MA & our 7th grade Social Studies teacher in 1961 told us that at the time Cows still outnumbered People in the state of New Hampshire.
I looked around, I think they still do.
Cow Hampshire
Stone structures were here long before any Europeans or cows were...
Good video. I'm in NE CT. Same here. Most wall building stopped after, the summer that never was, and many moved to Ohio. The parallel walls were also to delineate public roads. My town road is 2 rods(33') wide and was deeded to the town before the revolution. In the northern part of our town is a section of the old Kings Highway that is 3 rods wide. It is overgrown but protected.
My major advisor in Grad School(UCONN) did a study on stonewall dams. Building the stone wall and back filling it saved time for the builders before there was powered construction equipment.
Read some of Eric Sloanes' books about early New England for an interesting and relaxing read. Good Luck, Rick
I grew up in Rhode island we have such cool rock walls and streets and sidewalks
There was an article in the NY Times years ago and it described how a portion of stone wall had to be taken down for access to remove some trees here in Connecticut,, the homeowner who was described as "handy" attempted to rebuild the wall after the tree work was completed and the article documented how the homeowner tried unsuccessfully numerous times to rebuild the wall which was originally laid up by hand all of 100 years ago,, finally they located an old farmer who came in and put the stones back perfectly
Fascinating!
Central Franklin County, central Massa-choose-its, here. In the Quabbin Valley/Pioneer Valley town of Wendell, state forest, stone walls throughout. My 1.8 acre has 3’ tall /wide walls on 3 sides, used for livestock, in the 1880’s, and not built upon til, 1965.
Stone walls are all over New England, not just Maine. Stone walls were built as land was cleared. Early land owners and surveyors were extremely accurate laying out boundaries using rudimentary tools.
I live in the Catskills of New York and have always been fascinated by stone walls. I always thought the two parallel walls were for wagons (early roads). Thanks for the great overview!
That's because they are and she is mostly wrong in this video
I have a lot of stone walls on my NW Pennsylvanian hilltop. And sometimes piles of stones, too.this land was settled in mid to late 1800s, and the rocks are smaller, but they are otherwise very similar to new englands' walls.
I have walls that look very similar to this but they put all the small ones in the middle.
Oh how I miss Maine, the people …. and USM. The happiest days of my life….
Thank you for the informative video. We are in Connecticut and have an abundance of stone walls that are beautiful.
I'm a CT resident and hiker. There are so many rock walls out in the woods it's just a part of the landscape. I like the different degrees of sophistication and speculating what came first.
I always wondered what the forests were like prior to deforestation
Ancient, but native Americans also changed landscapes pretty significantly themselves.
Very awesome piece! I've always wondered why there are so many in the New England area. Now I know!!
Beautifully shot. Well written. Production values were over the top. Kudos!
Southeast Missouri woods are full of these walls too. Pretty cool
Lots of those here in CT too. See lots from highway and around in the woods.
I agree that most of the stone walls were built by european settler farmers. But there are claims that there were earlier walls that were there prior to the arrival of the Europeans. I have not seen any peer review archeologists supporting these claims except for some of the ancient arranged stones associated with the ancient red paint people habitations and burials that are found near shore lines.
Hardly any of the stone walls here were built by Europeans....
Brilliant video.
Wonderful presenter.
Nice little documentary.
The first generation of settlers needed to take the stones out of the land to make way for crops. But as New englanders know the stones keep coming to the surface.
Stone walls were here long before any tourists from Europe came here...
When I was stationed in New England a very common sense explanation I learned from the locals, was that that the stones reappeared each spring being forced up frozen thaw. The farm folks would have to go out into their fields each spring and remove the newly upthrust stones before they could cultivate the land for produce or livestock husbandry. Of course, they would take the stones to their nearest boundary or section line and stack them thereby creating fences or boundary lines to keep most pesky critters out of their fields. Though rare today, there were many land titles that relied on these stone edifices for deeding surveys.
It is the boundary of my property.
Always a great place to hunt Partridge, follow Deer trails. I have seen many Pine Marten, Fisher, Weasels and everything they hunt in and around stone walls. Born in 1947 and they have drawn me to them all around Maine.
Very informative and interesting. Thanks
There all over the lower Hudson valley too.
Does the person cite any sources? This is her opinion. Some settlers said that the walls were present when they arrived.
Space Vikings
One thing not to love is they are perfect tick habitat and shelter.
...plus mine acts as a wagon road between the walls of opposing fields. The forest has reclaimed it so, naturally, it is now a game trail.
Super constant source of ticks and an even better place for them to wait for their next host.
I have all the diseases...probably.
Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England by Cronon is a good read for such matters of NE
I feel we have similar walls in my area, NE Pennsylvania. How are they different? Love your Presentation.🍰 thank you.
For sure...im surrounded by them in the Poconos right now.
I imagine they're not much different aside from the local source rock. Many are probably identical except for the course that nature has taken since they were constructed.
@@AndyDrake-FOOKYT I am also in the Poconos. So you know!
these stone walls, which are all over western maine because of old sheep farming, are the best places to find forest soil while doing minimal damage to the forest. Find a nice run in a hardwood dominated forest and run the edge, pulling up all leaf mat that has developed going back into the stone cracks. Don't pull it off the wall more than 12 inches, throw leaves back down against the wall.....do it again in 20 years.....screen it, ad a hint of lime and wood ash, presto, grow anything, especially of you use compost tea on top........ yeah, use leaf mold soil for that too.
Great presentation and Great to see Professor Laz. I took a few of her sociology courses at USM in the mid 90's.
Someone farmed there for sustenance. Usually built by Irish paupers. Most of the 17th & 18th century. The northern new England towns largest crop was Potash. Which was exported to grease the wheels and cogs of the wool and blossoming cotton industries. Many towns had Irish "laborers" that lived on the far outskirts of the villages. Potash cauldrons were imported from England. Potash is the product of cooking trees in massive cast iron cooking pots. A mix of readily available birch, maple, oak, and other hardwoods would be cooked down to ash.
Would love your take on the Mystery Stone Walls in Halifax, Nova Scotia! Interesting!
I grew up in Pownal and climbed Bradbury Mountain many times. There was a huge sand ridge behind the house I grew up in, and it was obvious that it was used as a source of sand. And, across the street was a private quarry, (now filled in.) It was a source of large step stones and foundations for houses and the one-room school in town.
Iam a Fin living in Maine all my life most stone walls have a 3ft. Deep Base where they put all the small rocks that’s why they have stood the test of time
Because they are more ancient than she describes !
I noticed this in PA. I thought I had an endless supply of large stones right where I wanted them...but it's just a one layer cladding.
I didn't want to destroy as much wall as was going to be necessary to get the quantity of stones I needed...plus I was going to have to haul them much farther.
I wonder what the process was. I guess they just built 2 walls close to each other and then filled the center with the small ones to lock them together as it built up? Also a good way to use up the small ones that normally wouldn't be structurally useful.
Born and raised in and never left CT. I was today years old when I learned of the sheep connection.
There's no 'sheep' connection', these walls were here long before any sheep or people were imported from Europe. This video seems like racist colonial erasure of native history.
This is so awesome!!
This! Thanks so much my girlfriend and I always comment on the walls
Ok Google, this recommendation was rock solid.
Did you understand the contents of the book "Manitou"? Seems like, maybe not.
Very nicely done. Informative and interesting. I enjoyed the background music. Is it something I can down load from the internet so I can listen to it? If so, please point me in the right direction.
I grew up in eastern Maine on my grandparents farm and there were, and still are, stone walls all over the 100 acre farm. They were generally just inside the wooded areas around the hay fields, presumably picked from what were originally blueberry fields in the long distant past. I made some interesting finds in the refuse piles that often accompanied the stone piles and walls. Glass bottles, old metal tools and I even found an old Ford Model T that a large pine tree had grown up through.
It's honestly amazing what you can find in Maine's woods🌲
I was just back (home) Maine last month for my honeymoon and i explained to my wife all about the stone walls! Weird timing!. Love it. Thank you!
I really wish I could have done something different with my life. Studying stone walls sounds like a LOT more fun than what I do.