Ceremonial Stonework of Hartman Park
TEMJ 20014 - Stone Prayers, Great Spirit, Native Americans, Younger Dryas Period, Serpents, Sacred Rocks, Sweat Lodge, Three Chimneys, Tom Wessel, Markham Star, NEARA, Anthropocentrism, Hartman Park
Lyme, CT - Corner Trails
In the summer of 2022, a fellow naturalist and class mate of mine mentioned taking a guided hike in eastern Connecticut. Mary-Jo described seeing ceremonial stoneworks, or stonewalls that were meant to be stone prayers. Hearing this for the first time, I was a bit skeptical. “All of the stonework must have been built by the colonists”, I said to her. Needless to say, initially my colleague felt the same way, however after returning from the guided hike her mind was changed. “These stone monuments were not made by the colonials, they were very different”. Hearing all this, I asked her for the contact information of the hiker leader. A few weeks later I called the hike leader and had a very interesting conversation. It would take me over six months to finally get in the field and to see these stone structures for myself.
After several failed attempts, false starts due to the arctic blast - in March of 2023 I finally was able to successfully join the Lyme Land Trust on a guided hike of the Hartman Park. A large group of 12+ people turned out for the Sunday hike, which was scheduled from 1:00 - 5:00PM.
In summary, I am one-hundred-percent (100%) convinced that there are many Native American structures laying unidentified and dormant in the woods in New England.
Native American Stonewalls
While Native American artifacts and antiquities are well documented in the western USA, the Great Plains and the Mid-west, much of the ancient stonework in New England remains obscure.
In this journal entry we will discuss how to distinguish colonial structures from Native American structure. I will also share pictures of several distinct types of native structures in the Hartman Park including stone cairns, stone serpents, and spiritual sites. Many of these structures were found off trail and are abandoned in the CT woodland. But first, lets look at the geologic history of CT.
CT Geology
Connecticut has a very interesting Geologic history. The state can be divided into three pieces, east of the CT River, west of the CT River and the CT river central valley. The CT river valley sits between the east and west geology. The CT river valley is where two continents once collided and later separated.
Approximately 21,000 years ago, CT and the Long Island Sound were covered with an ice sheet that was one mile thick. This glacier originated in Hudson Bay in Canada and was called the Laurentide Ice Sheet. This massive ice sheet covered all of CT from Greenwich to Stonington.
As the glacier moved, it picked up and carried, soil, pebbles, stones, rocks and boulders the size of houses. All these stones, rocks and boulders were carried by the glacier from Canada to CT. Today you can stick a shovel in the ground and dig up a ‘CT potato’. A CT potato is what we call rocks here in the state. You are guaranteed to get a rock or ‘CT potato’ with every shovel full. In 11,500BC the glacier suddenly began to melt and deposited all its glacier ‘till’ over CT.
Younger Dryas Period
Between 12,900 to 11,700 BC North America saw the procession and recession of the glacier. This period of time is known as the Younger Dryas period, and it saw many indigenous people return to these areas and prosper. It was a very important period of time in North America as the glacier rapidly receded quickly. The change was relatively sudden, taking place in in a mere few decades. Measurements of oxygen isotopes from the GISP2 ice core (Greenland) suggest the ending of the Younger Dryas (warming) took place over just 40~50 years in three discrete steps, each lasting five years.. Little is known about how or why this happened to the earth.
CT Stonewalls
It is not an uncommon experience to be sauntering through the New England woodland or an open field and encounter a stonewall. There are thousands of miles of stonewalls in New England.
After some time, you start to notice not all stonewalls are the same. Some are constructed differently from others. At some point in time you ask yourself, “who constructed these stonewalls?”. There is much debate regarding whether these structures were built by colonial farmers, pre-columbian trans-Atlantic voyagers, Native Americans or aliens from outer space.
Sacred Stones
The classical Greeks believed in sacred stones which cured snake bites (snake-stones), and sacred stones that produced lactation in women (milk-stones). In addition Greek brothers, who wanted to live in unity with each other, would carry magnetic-stones. In New Caledonian (modern day Scotland), wizards would use sacred stones in rituals to stop storms and flooding. These stones were disc shaped and were used to dry the landscape and were referenced as sun-stones. Through-out history, stones have held a sacred and ceremonial position with humanity.
Native Americans
The Lakota Indians believed in a legend from long ago. In this legend the keeper’s of the earth shared a meme with a young boy. The legend spoke about how ‘all stories come from rocks’. “Out of the oldest things, the stones (or grandmother rock), the first stories were told”.
Many Native American legends tell a creation story, which comes from the rock. In the Wabanaki culture, there is a story of Gluscabi. In it, a turtle carried a stone on his back and created the place we call earth.
This notion of the stone being associated with the creation story cuts across many Native American tribes. It would be fair to say the stones that we call common, would be considered scared stones to Native Americans.
Anthropocentrism
As an environmentalist and naturalist I see humanity trying to dominate and develop the world. Our standing view of living things is stacked up like Jenga blocks - bacteria, plants, insects, animals, civilized humanity (with our views on science, philosophy and religion held above all). Humankind sits at the top, looking down upon all life. This is the perspective that our taxonomic classification system is built on. We break apart the natural work into a hierarchical caste system.
“Life is a planetary level phenomenon and the Earth has been alive for at least 3,000 million years. To me the human move to take responsibility for the living Earth is laughable - the rhetoric of the powerless. The planet takes care of us, not we of it. Our self inflated moral imperative to guide a wayward Earth or heal a sick planet is evidence of our immense capacity for self-delusion. Rather, we need to protect us from ourselves.”
― Lynn Margulis, Symbiotic Planet: A New Look at Evolution
The Sacred Rock
The belief that humans are the most important entity in the universe stands in stark contrast to how Native Americans view the world. Native Americans of the Great Plains believe in a ‘great spirit’ in the cosmos or the universe. The ‘great spirit’ is the Grandfather (Tunkashila) and the earth being the Grandmother. Rocks or stones represented the Grandmother(Unchi) or Earth, from which all things come, and they represent the indestructible and everlasting nature of the great spirit. Rocks and stones were considered sacred, while they do not have limbs, nor eyes, nor ears, the Native Americans believe stones could hear and see all things. Stones were all knowing, just like your mother is. (Lol) In this view of reality, humankind was at the center and was on the same plain as all other living things. A tree person, a buffalo person, stone person, etc…
Early plains people created large circles of stones called Medicine Wheels. They were large circles of stones with spokes radiating from the center. There may have been a calendric or astronomical function to the wheels. Summer solstice sunset. Aldebaran rises. Summer solstice sunrise. Rigel rises. Sirius rises.
Sweat Lodge
Take as an example, the sweat lodge. It is constructed as a wheel and is divided into four quadrants, West, North, East and South also symbolic of Grandfather, Father, Grandmother, and Mother. Five red-hot stones would be placed on the ground in the middle of the sweat lodge, with four stones oriented to the four directions ( W, N, E, S) and the fifth rock placed in the center.
Water was put on the rocks to generate an sweet grass incensed steam (viewed as the breathe of the earth) and this steam would purify the heart. Each direction was associated with different living things - two legged, four legged, winged ones, finned ones etc… with all living things coming from Mother Earth. Every living thing has energy, power and spirit. All these powers are really just one and the same and are indivisible. The ability to see the oneness is considered wise, where as seeing things individually was considered stupid.
Reading The Landscape
The are many ways to look at and read the public land in Connecticut. Some folks look to it for recreation, such as walking, and or hiking. Others turn to it for riding, either on a mountain bike or a horse’s back. Still others turn to the public lands for its flora and fauna, such as birding or foraging for wild mushrooms. Others like me, are actively trying to preserve and conserve the open space we have here in Connecticut.
The Connecticut landscape is more than just a recreational playground. It is a museum, or a historical record. There are a few people, several who I have met, that are able to read the landscape and decipher the forensic information it contains. What follows are two examples of New England’s best sherpas. I highly recommend them both to you.
Tom Wessels - Forest Landscape
Consider Tom Wessels an American terrestrial ecologist. Tom views the New England Forests and reads the landscape starting from the present and then reads it backward into the deep past. If you are not familiar with Tom’s work, you ought to be, you should start with his book entitled, Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England. See the reference section below for a link link to YouTube.
As an example, Tom is able to use ‘blow-down’ trees to correlate the forest to historical storm events in New England’s past. Moreover, Tom uses the many stone walls found deep in the forrest to tell use how the land might have been used hundreds of years ago. Our history, and the forest’s history, are linked and Tom has the ability to decoded it and tell us what it means. Take some time to get familiar with his work.
Markham Star - Stone Landscape
Markham Star is another New England sherpa. Markham is a documentary photographer concerned with the disappearing working cultures of New England. He is the author of a dozen books, and has written about Ceremonial Stonework in Connecticut. Markham believes that many of the stoneworks in eastern CT are sacred places constructed by indigenous peoples of the region.
After walking hundreds of miles, photographing 8,000 stone constructions, Markham chose 270 color images, and separated the work into 25 categories which are included in his book. The title of his book is, “Ceremonial Stonework: The Enduring Native American Presence on the Land”. Markham also leads guided hikes in eastern CT and Western Rhode Island. Markham was the hike leader on the Lyme Land Trust hike which I attended in March of 2023.
Interpretive Hike at Hartman Park
Hartman Park was donated to the Town of Lyme by John and Kelly Hartman in 1988. The Hartman Park included 302 acres of land and 10+ miles of trails with many historical points of interest. Much of this area was seasonal hunting ground for the Indigenous peoples that once lived here.
Stop Looking At Your Feet
Markham (Mark) Star is a fountain of information. The first thing he tells us is, “Stop looking at your feet”. He also suggests that we all take along a hiking staff, which will “help balance you”, if we walk with our head ups. He tells us that there is more ceremonial stonework in New London county than just about anywhere else on the east coast. It is the epicenter of stone construction. On our guided hike he would read and interpret the landscape and then share profound insights, which he has gathered over the years.
Markham shared stories of stones chambers that have very odd geographic distributions. The stone chambers are concentrated in Putnam County, New York and others in New London county, Connecticut. I grew-up in Putnam county, NY and I do recall encountering several of these stone chambers myself.
Some of the stone chambers are above the ground, and other are below ground. Some stone chambers you have to drop through a small hole in the ceiling, another stone chamber has a 35’ long tunnel like entrance. A few of the chambers have been scientifically tested and have been dated to pre-colonial times. Markham has personally has visited over 60 of these stone chambers. Markham believes that 99% of the stonework he has identified are ceremonial in nature, while the others he believes are food storage or sweat lodges.
On the hike at Hartman, I thought one of the stonewalls we encountered, at the end of our hike, might have functioned as a hunting blind, as the wall was located against a small rock outcrop near a three-way intersection. This natural funnel would have brought game closer to the stalking/stealthy hunters. Perhaps the rock wall was the remnants of a defensive position dating to the fort that defended Old Saybrook. No one knows for sure! Let me know what you think in the comment section below.
More over as I previously mentioned, stones were considered sacred, they were often used in ceremony and Markham believes that the act of ‘placing a stone’ or ‘stacking of stones’ would be an offering to the ‘Great Spirit’ and Mother Earth. As mentioned the Native Americans believe all living things had spirits or powers especially rocks.
“Two glacial erratic boulders named Grey Mare and Mishow, located on Hunter Island, were spiritually significant to the Siwanoy Indians. The Siwanoys practiced their sacred ceremonies, and two sachems are believed to be buried at Mishow; the Siwanoys believed the boulders to have been placed there by their guardian Manitou (the spiritual, omnipresent life force that manifests itself in everything). “
Another reoccurring structure is what Mark calls a T-Wall. This is where a short wall runs 90 degrees into a cliff wall, creating a T-shape from above. He has found stone walls that are turtle like in appearance, like a monument. In fact, Mark takes us to a location in Hartman Park, where we see a serpent like stone wall. The snake like wall has a diamond shaped head, just like a snake and long tail going up the hill.
Mark shared advice with us, he told us to look for rock ledges and stones that are stacked. He called these structures SOBs, or ‘Stones On a Boulder). The stone ledge supports the stones for eternity.
There are many instances of rock cairns, and in some locations they may be laid out in grid-like patterns. These stone cairns are believed to be memorials. Passing tribes would often walk by these sacred areas and place a stone on the pile as a memorial to a tribal soul or the great spirit. Mark has classified over 24 different types of ceremonial stone structures. If you want to learn more about them, get a copy of his book.
Three Chimneys Site
On the guided hike we encountered so many ceremonial stone structures, to many to write about here in this journal entry. However it was the Three chimney site that convinced me these stone structures were sacred and built thousands of years ago. This location is very large in size and very elaborate in construction. But it is known for its three chimneys or firebox like structures. It is not known what the site was used for. No one has been able to decode its meaning. Perhaps this was a sacred place that connected the cosmos to the land via the ceremonial stone work here at Three Chimneys.
There is much speculation about this fascinating collection of stone structures at Three Chimneys. Moreover, this site might have been used by the colonialists who may have also been built over the pre-colonial structures. So its hard to keep it all sorted out in your mind.
It is impossible to say which indigenous peoples might have lived here or originally built these structures. I have researched it some and I have determined that there is a smaller, lesser known tribe that lived between Lyme-and-Niantic who were called the Mamachoag, or Mamacock indians, which translates to mean “where mummies, and small fish abound”. The Mamachoag is a small brook in Lyme, CT.
The rabbit hole gets deeper and deeper. I’ll leave this journal entry here. I hope you enjoyed this. I would encourage you to make the trip to Hartman and see these structures for yourself. In a future Journal entry I plan to visit and write about ceremonial stonework I’ve found in the western part of the state. I found several instances and hope to find more now that Markham has helped me train my eyes.
The End Of The Trail
Well folks we have made it back to the trailhead, back to our vehicle. Thank you for getting this far and reading The Earthmonk Journal. If you like what you have read, please subscribe to the journal. It is free and it is a great way to support me and my work.
What’s Next
For 2023 I am planning to visit more antiquities and write about them. I also want to bring the written word to many of the Land Trusts that operate in New England. They are numerous and many are making profound contributions to preservation.
If you want access to the sources I have used, please consider a paid subscription to the Earthmonk Journal. Paid subscribers can access my online resources below.
- The Earthmonk
Online References and Other Resources
If you would like access to the online references, sources and other resources used to prepare this journal entry please consider buying a paid subscription to The Earthmonk Journal.
Articles
Stone Chambers of Putnam County NY
Rock Piles, by Geophile
Indian place names of New England, site
The Younger Dryas period, 12,900 to 11,700
Tom Wessels: Reading the Forested Landscape, Part 1
Books
Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England, Tom Wessels
Ceremonial Stonework: The Enduring Native American Presence on the Land, Markham Star
The Sacred Pipe - The Seven Rites of Oglala Sioux, By Black Elk
The Golden Bough, Sir James George Frazer
Stone Prayers: Native American Constructions of the Eastern Seaboard, by Curtiss Hoffman
Video
Larry Harrop - Ceremonial Stone Landscapes
Reading the Forest Landscape, Part 1 - YouTube
Markham’s 3d Photography site
NEARA
NEARA (New England Antiquities Research Association) has been dating stoneworks from Pennsylvania to Maine. One of the older stoneworks dates back to 930BC according to Norman Mueller of the Pennsylvania Historic Preservation office. The preferred method of testing involves a procedure known as optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and is a method for measuring doses from ionizing radiation which rocks and stones are exposed to.