Giving Thanks for A Connecticut Stonework Outing

And The First of a Few Stone Features Seen Upon A Holiday Hike

A Group Hike in Connecticut the Day After Thanksgiving. Photo by Mike Luoma.

Very nice to have been able to see potential Sacred Stonework in Connecticut on my last holiday break. Many thanks to former NEARA President Harvey Buford for inviting me along on his family & friends post-Thanksgiving Day hike, and thanks as well to Photographer and Stone Site Investigator, Guide and Author Markham Starr (Ceremonial Stonework: The Enduring Native American Presence on the Land), who led the excursion and showed us to the features I’ll share with you in my next few posts.

Ceremonial Stonework: The Enduring Native American Presence on the Land by Markham Starr in paperback. Photo by Mike Luoma.

I headed down to the Southeastern part of the Nutmeg State on Friday morning, the day after Thanksgiving, to meet up with Harvey, his wife Dyane Plunkett, former Treasurer for NEARA, and several of their family members and other friends. Markham — Mark — led us across acres of swampy hollows and rocky ridges where intriguing stonework slithered across a seemingly un-farmable landscape.

A great deal of this did, indeed, seem to be potential Indigenous Stonework. Mark has shared some of this work in his Ceremonial Stonework book. In addition to sharing it with us on the hike last month.

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Towards the end of our day, Mark showed us to an L- or U- shaped stone enclosure built onto the side of a low cliff on the edge of a wetland. The boxy structure is open in front. It was unlike anything I’d seen before, but was told these are common in this area.

Rough Notebook Sketch of the Enclosure Feature. Illustration by Mike Luoma.

When facing the stone structure and the cliff, the wall to the left extends nearly perpendicular from the cliff face towards you before it turns at a nearly 90 degree angle to begin to form the front wall. But it arcs down quickly, until there is soon no wall remaining in the front. Mark said this had tumbled down over time.

A Small Linteled Chamber on the Right Side of Enclosure. Photo by Mike Luoma.

The wall to the right isn’t simply a wall, but includes a small, low, linteled chamber built off of the cliff face, a couple of feet deep.

A Stone Feature in Southeastern Connecticut. Photos by Mike Luoma.

Mark showed us quite a few interesting stone features in this general area. I’ll be bringing you more posts with in-depth looks at additional features from here in the days ahead.

There’s also video footage of this feature below for paid subscribers.