Stonewalls & Old Roads

[The Rebel]

I’ve been hiking several old abandoned roads in the woods. They are on the 1867 maps and no houses are shown to be along them. Some of these roads might be 6 miles long.

The old roads in some places are boarded by stonewalls to the left & right, which I figure were put there to help guide travelers by letting them know they were on the main road & not on some side road. In other places the border walls just end and the road continues. When I see the areas with the border walls I feel like I’m coming into an area where a cellar hole might be but I do not see any possible evidence of one, even when there is a definite opening in the wall that says to me come on in.

When looking at the aerial satellite maps I also see stonewalls go off in all directions that are squared off so these must have been pens, grazing fields…etc..

What I can’t figure out is why out in the middle of nowhere they spent so much time squaring these areas off. In my mind there has to be a cellar hole someplace that these squared off areas belonged to.

Love to hear some of your thoughts on the subject.

Thanks in advance,
Roger

 

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[Mackaydon]

Back in the day, when we lived in southern Connecticut, the area behind our home had plenty of stone walls. We were told they were built by Indians (land clearing for crops), before any roads were in the area.
Don...

 

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[ChargerGuy]

In New York and New England you can go nearly anywhere and expect to find walls. As other's mentioned, doesn't mean a house site was nearby. However, things was still lost along them and in the fields they outlined. I'd be surprised if you can go anywhere in the northeast for six miles straight without there having been a house site, camp, or other occupied area somewhere. But if anyone wants to learn more about stone walls, I'd highly suggest the book "Sermons in Stone". Read it years ago and it was quite interesting. Here's a link... Sermons in Stone: The Stone Walls of New England and New York: Susan Allport, David Howell: 9780393312027: Amazon.com: Books