Mystery stone wall in the middle of the woods.

[USMC18]

Hey everybody, I need your help figuring out what this stone wall was for. I love to go exploring and walking in the woods, so my dad told me a story of how him and a couple of friends went hiking in the woods and found this stone wall. These woods are behind a Cemetery that is Supposedly very haunted and is know around my area very well. Inside the woods is a fairly steep hill with many piles of stones laying around (possibly Cairn Markers from the Native Americans). The wall is right at the top of this hill, maybe a quarter mile from the Cemetery. The area around it is pretty open compared to the rest of the woods, which is thick with trees and shrubs. The stones that make up the wall look like they were cut with some type of tool or machine because they have perfect square sides. It doesn't look like these stones were just pulled out of the ground. My dad told me that when he found the wall, it was more intact. It looks to me like it had fallen over since the last time my dad seen it, which was around 15 years ago. By the way, this Cemetery is in the middle of a New York State Forest. The area goes back to about 1798 and was founded by the Quakers. The main source of business came from Lumbering, so there were a lot of sawmills in the area. The only explanation I can think of is that there were farmers in the area that were clearing land for farming. Maybe they dug these rocks up and stacked them. But these rocks have square sides. Then again it might have something to do with the Cemetery. Who would want to do this in the middle of the woods? I have no clue. Anybody have any ideas? (These pictures were taken in the fall.)

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

DR.ÖTEK Metal Detector, Waterproof Gold Detector, Pinpoint & Terrain Modes, Professional Metal Detector - Grab it through Amazon!

[G.A.P.metal]

Did you run your detector around the wall to see id there is any iron patch ?
Gary

 

[ARC]

appears to be possible foundation wall

 

[Rean.c]

I do a lot of searching for things like that when I'm detecting, and if I'm correct I would think its a old chimney for a fire place. It appears to be to high up to be a foundation, hope this helps.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[USMC18]

Did you run your detector around the wall to see id there is any iron patch ?
Gary

I did not Metal Detect it yet, but I plan to very soon.

 

[USMC18]

I do a lot of searching for things like that when I'm detecting, and if I'm correct I would think its a old chimney for a fire place. It appears to be to high up to be a foundation, hope this helps.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It is kind of on an incline, so I didn't really think it could be from a house. It would also be pretty hard to get a horse drawn carriage up a hill like that. Plus there was nothing shown on the 1800s maps I looked at.

 

[villagenut]

Depending on how much stone there is there may indicate an old family plot, part of the cemetery. Could be a above ground marker or vault type grave marker. Some folks back in the old days had a fear of being buried where lower areas were, not wanting to end up in the ground where there was thawing snow or summer rainfall.This of course is just an educated guess. It depends on what you see there, as we are not actually there.....If I were, I would have already searched it.

 

[Rean.c]

Interesting. Whatever it is it was build very well, and a lot of time put into it. Most foundations are stone fitted together, in that case the stone is carved to fit perfectly


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[USMC18]

My dad also told me that when him and his friends first discovered it, they thought it could be a stone Altar. Most of the people buried in the cemetery were Catholics and plus there was a church down the road. When my dad first seen it, it was all intact. There were no stones out of place and there was a large flat stone on top of it that had fallen over time, which is shown in the picture. He also found a couple of old tools and a piece to a horse bridle at the location.

 

[Reed Lukens]

Could be an altar but the slab in pic 3 looks like a mantel to a chimney. So I think Rean is right on. Maybe a chimney from a sod house that fell back into the surroundings.

 

[unclemac]

them trees are not all that old...so being in the "middle of the woods" is a relative idea....

 

[USMC18]

them trees are not all that old...so being in the "middle of the woods" is a relative idea....

Well this area might have been logged out, but the area around it is pretty thick with trees.

 

[unclemac]

sure sure of course...I live in thick woods with huge 100 year old Douglas fir trees...huge dam things...but 100 years old is not that old for a tree and the trees in you pictures don't look to be more than 50 for the big ones.

 

[wildthunder]

looks like a chimney or fire place from what I have seen in the woods, but it's too perfect looking

 

[H-2 CHARLIE]

A stone corner stone piller of some mountain cabin or hillbilly's shack . that's what's left , cool old virgan ground .

 

[Ant]

Is it actually a stone wall or a stack or pile of block stones that could have been placed as a survey marker or claim monument.

 

[Edmundruffin]

If there is an outcropping of natural stone, this could be a pile of stone mason's work.Never used. Check the older structures around your area for the same stone.

 

[mrs.oroblanco]

If you are in the Northeast - New York state, Pennsylvania, Appalachia, you know that it is the rockiest ground in places. Farmers from years ago picked up rocks in their fields to clear them and made them into stone walls - most often on their boundary lines, or around where they wanted a few acres closed off. In the last 20 years or so, thousands of them have been taken down and sold (at a pretty penny, I might add), and there aren't a whole lot left. Back when I was a kid (many may years ago), every small farm had them all over the place (That area is well-known for "growing rocks". You could walk miles and miles in the woods and find them anywhere and everywhere. They were also used to "rock in" little springs, etc., so cows etc could drink from them without them turning into mud slides for cows feet. Gosh, I really miss those stone walls. They picked them apart and restacked them on pallets, wrapped them with chicken wire and sell them for about $120.00 a pallet (depending on color, moss growth, etc, it could go as high as $300.00). They are sold around the country - if you go to California, you can see Pennsylvania blue stone or flagstone selling for $100 a ROCK, pallets selling for $900 - 1200 dollars. Quite often, they would leave corner rock for separate selling, per rock, which is why you see a lot of "left-overs"

 

[pong12211]

Go get your detector and start digging some holes.

 

[leddel]

its whats left of an old chimney looks like a cabin site (usually only the chimney piles
are all thats left visible ) , you'll be able to tell how old from
the items you find around it .