This wonderful Native American Site is located in Western Massachusetts. It is on private property, not my own...and therefore I cannot share anything more than photos of the site. It is remarkably similar to other "rock pile" sites described on various internet sites.
It’s the spiritual implications that haunt me; is a site, once it's been used for religious or ceremonial purposes, always "spiritual," or does it cease to be a hallowed place once it no longer serves the function for which it was intended? Is a place "special in the spiritual sense" only when man designates it as such? I'm reminded of the current practice of discontinuing and selling Church buildings: No longer considered "hallowed walls" but just a building; something to put back on the tax rolls, or to tear down. Redundant. The Man who builds-or owns, can therefore ignore, or destroy.
What is it about Stonehenge , the Pyramids, the Great Wall of China, or Easter Island that draws us?
Are we mystified by the Men who built them? The HOW of them? The WHY of them?
Are the Native American cairn fields then, just "piles of stones"? Why do we relegate them to "field clearing" by New England farmers of the 18th century? Are they too ubiquitous? Too Abstract?
What is the WHY and HOW of this particular collection of Cairns? Why this place? What I do know, from watching the animals via a trail camera, that it is a place of peace and sanctuary for the animals that pass through, and have done, year in and year out, time out of mind.
This appears to be a ceremonial site. All the components are there. South facing slope near a Great Pond, bordered by brooks formed by spring run-offs. The large Split Boulder. Curved rows of stones, facing the split boulder. Nearby another Split Rock", "plugged." A Stone Wall with no logic to it's beginning or ending, bordering the run-off of a spring. At least three complete circles of stones of different sizes, with a corresponding sized quartz rock in the center. There are at least 5 turtle effigies on cairns, a couple of frog effigies, a snake, and the single large Bird effigy. In an almost direct line, approximately 300 feet apart and heading north, are piles of stones. There is no known property line in the oldest deeds to correspond with the placement of these piles.
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| Split Rock filled with stones. |
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| Frog Effigy on Cairn |
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| Large split boulder.. face on; it's middle is covered with woodland debris but it extends about 15 feet,. |
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| Ring of Stones surrounding the large Split Boulder, above. |
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| Row of stones on ground facing the large split boulder, above. |
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| Turtle Effigy on Cairn |
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