cobaltbot
Well-Known Member
I came across this last winter but have been hesitant to put it on the computer because I wasn't sure what to do with it and want to protect the site and only yesterday went back with a rake and unburied it so I could get a decent picture. Once its "out there" its out there forever but I would like to share it with my brothers and sisters here. This could be absolutely nothing but the reason I discovered this unusual foundation was because of a projectile point I'll show on the following post. A few years ago I found this point in what looked like an ancient small fire pit. There was no burnt matter visible but it certainly looked like at one time it could have been a fire pit and the quartz point was lying in the middle. Last winter I decided to try and find the pit again but I wasn't sure the exact location, there were tons of leaves covering everything, and they had built condos close to the site which they had just started breaking ground for when I originally found the pit. Short of bringing back a leaf blower I gave up on the pit but decided to scout the adjoining woods to see if I could find anything else. If I hadn't been looking for unusual stone formations that day I doubt I would have noticed this man made rock work. I raked away the leaves for this picture but it was harder to make out that day with the leaf cover. There are rocks of this kind scattered all over the forest floor in this area but for some reason humans made this diamond shaped foundation and cleared the interior. There is a break in the foundation on the north, south and west sides. The east side is slightly uphill and on the day I discovered it the unbroken vee was pointing at the rising sun. There is no mortar and the rocks barely sit 6 inches or so above present day dirt and I'm not sure how deep they go. The interior is a small space about seven feet from east to west and 10 feet from north to south. There are only three hunches I have come up with so far. The area used to be a farm but I can think of no use for this kind of foundation in farming. Second, maybe kids did this long ago as a small tent site. There was a group of kids way back in the thirty's and forty's who roamed this couple of square miles area who used to carve old dates (i.e. 1776) on trees just to mess with hunters but I talked with one of them and he doesn't recall camping in the area. The third guess is that this is somehow native american related, which is somewhat backed up by finding the point nearby. It seems kind of small and unusual for a wickiup site. The kicker is that it is on county property and there is a heavily used converted rail trail I could throw a rock at that goes right by the site. I have sprinkled tobacco around it for protection and covered it back over with leaves and sticks but I sure wish those rocks could talk and tell me who made it and when and why!