Any Ideas What This Might Be?

[The Grim Reaper]

I saw this a couple of years ago coming back from the Ripley show, but I didn't have my camera with me. This year it stood out like a sore thumb on the side of the hill with the snow covering the ground. In the first two picture you can see a dark line running at a 45 degree angle from bottom right to top left up the edge of the hill. This is made of rocks that are stacked up in a straight line going up the hill. I couldn't get really good close up pictures because of the traffic, but you can see the line pretty well and the 3rd and 4th pictures you can see some of the rocks stacked up. This spot is within a 1/2 mile of the marker I took a picture of and is on the same hill line. I wonder if they have something in common? This had to maen something because it would have taken a lot of labor to do this and I'm sure it was done for a reason. The last picture shows the trail right behind the marker that's going up to the hill top.

Any ideas are welcome.

 

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[SoIll]

http://www.caa-archeology.org/~caamicp/eastside/stonef.html

Maybe one of these. I've never heard of any except the ones here.

 

[Th3rty7]

Possibly some ancient earthworks. Check this out

http://www.wvculture.org/History/nativeamericans/mountcarbon01.html

There's the remnants of a stone placed wall still standing in Summers county, WV. It's just a couple hundred yards from a field I hunt. I did some research and found it was connected to woodland culture. There's also a triangular rock with hieroglyphics and a mysterious alter made of sandstone in the same general area. The wall in your pics is strange that it was built on steep slope like that.

 

[joshuaream]

It might just be an old example of dry stone masonry, which was used by people in the 1700's and 1800's as a way to make fences and mark important boundries.

They are all over the central part of Kentucky (and other areas as well.) The don't have mortar, but they hold up better in freeze and thaw conditions than regular brick walls. They repaired an old one and extended it a couple of hundred feet at the front part of our neighborhood when we lived in Kentucky. A couple of guys stacked the stones and had it done in a matter of days, I was surprised a how quick it went up.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

That was my first thought Joshua. I know as you're traveling down Rt 68 towards Lexington you see those stone fences all over the place. I just thought it was a little odd to see one going straight up a very steep hill.

 

[uniface]

For one thing, a thrown wall tumbles eventually from frost-heave. Anything like permanence requires it to be dug down to the frost line and laid (stones carefully fitted together). That kind of wall will stay upright for centuries.

Stone walls in general (New England abounds with them) are the end result of farmers clearing (or trying to) their ploughed fields of stones. Initially, just by carrying them to the end of the field to get them out of the way, but turning into a point of pride as time passed. You judged a man by his farm's walls. It carried over from England.

The likelihood that a white man would have thrown a wall of stones up the side of a mountain, boundary line or no, is pretty remote, IMO.

 

[mrs.oroblanco]

I know, coming from Pennsylvania, that there are stone walls going up and down and across hills - and they have lasted for centuries. We have even found some treasures, here and there, in the bottom parts of the stone walls.

Of course, anymore, people tend to be selling off the old stone walls - the way these walls were built and constructed, the stones used are now worth big, big bucks, because they have grown a lot of moss etc., on them - and that is highly prized in the "rock" selling industry.

I've seen northeastern stones like that for sale in California - for hundreds and hundreds of dollars for one single rock!

B

 

[Th3rty7]

I know, coming from Pennsylvania, that there are stone walls going up and down and across hills - and they have lasted for centuries. We have even found some treasures, here and there, in the bottom parts of the stone walls.

Of course, anymore, people tend to be selling off the old stone walls - the way these walls were built and constructed, the stones used are now worth big, big bucks, because they have grown a lot of moss etc., on them - and that is highly prized in the "rock" selling industry.

I've seen northeastern stones like that for sale in California - for hundreds and hundreds of dollars for one single rock!

B

It appears I'm in the wrong business...I got mossy rocks all day long...2 for $50. I wonder if these Californians feel stupid when their moss dies in such an arid climate and they're looking at 100 dollar rocks.

 

[mrs.oroblanco]

I found it funny, too. However, when we used to live in California - I've actually seen them "water" their rocks. (well, they do it with automatic sprinkler systems), but the first time I saw it, I could not figure out what they were watering, because the first one I ever saw was a house that had all cactus and pebbles (no grass) just pebbles and different kinds of cactus, with these NE stones propped up here and there. That's when we realized they HAD to be watering the rocks!

They did have them propped in the shaded areas under palm trees, etc. When we get our old pictures unloaded - I know I have a picture or two of a yard in Bakersfield, just because I found it so funny!!!!

I didn't find out until later how much those rocks cost out there - when we were in Ridgecrest at a landscaping store.

B