I was going through some old pictures today and came across this site in Freetown, MA. I don't know if I posted this sometime in the past, but it's worth reviewing.

I was following a trail when I came across this propped boulder. I searched around it expecting to find more stone work, but, nothing.

Continuing down the trail a couple of hundred feet, I noticed a boulder just above the base of an outcrop. It seemed to be standing sentry, as if protecting something.

As I got closer I could see multiple quartz veins in the boulder. Much of the quartz has been mined.

I climbed to the top of the outcrop and upon looking down I saw this magnificent propped boulder.

It's about 8 feet tall at it's highest point.

I climbed down and walked around to the other side of the boulder and found this ring.

The interior was full of leaf litter.  Cleaning it out revealed a possible manitou stone laying in the center of the ring.

If the stone was upright, it would fit nicely into the gap in the front part of the ring.

Photo by Catherine

Catherine from Johnston, Rhode Island made these photo slide shows showing some interesting stone rows in and along the shore of the South Watuppa Pond in Fall River Ma.

Slide show #1

Slide show #2

Bob Miner sent this in.

Photo by bob Miner

Yesterday we took a walk on the Miner's farm. Still as beautiful as ever.

The platform cairn end view.

Side view of the platform cairn.

The turtle cairn.

Then it was off to Canonchet.

The Canonchet chambers.

We got word of another chamber at Canonchet , but we were unable to locate it.

It's in a large previous unexplored area (unexplored by us) with hundreds of small cairns. Hopefully we can get permission from the property owner to spend some time there in the near future.

  Catherine from Johnston, Rhode Island contributes to this blog occasionally. Recently she took a trip to Joshua Tree National Park and Tahquitz Canyon and sent in the following photos.

Joshua Tree National Park, California  

Mortars at Cottonwood Springs

A pedestal boulder along the trail.

Close-up of the pedestal boulder

Wedged rock at 49 palms Oasis. ( note the standing stone)

Close-up of the wedged rock.

Carved rock at Lost Palms Oasis

Close-up of the carving. There were also some propped boulders here.

More of Catherine's pictures from Joshua Tree national Park can be found HERE

Tahquitz Canyon,California

The area in front of the stone is covered with rocks, and there is what looks like a manitou against the stone.

Tahquitz Falls, at the top of the trail. This is described in the guide as a place of power.

Just downstream from the falls, a propped boulder with donations underneath.

At the site of an ancient village, three propped boulders in a line across a larger boulder.

More of Catherine's pictures from Tahquitz Canyon can be found HERE

The red line on the map below was made with my GPS and represents my track as I walked the top of an esker. The total length of the esker is almost one fifth of a mile. Click on the map to see where the constructions mentioned in this blog post are located.

The stone row shown in the picture below goes along the entire west and north sides of the esker.

Climbing to the top of the esker on the south end where it starts there's a short stone row that goes through a split boulder.

The row continues curving around to the left linking to 3 more boulders. Total length is about 100 feet. This row could represent a serpent.

The picture below was taken with my back to the stone row (serpent's head) as I started to walk the esker.

The next feature encountered was another short stone row terminating at a large boulder.

Below is a close-up. Note the stone ring.

Continuing on, I came to a stone wall lined road going down to the right off of the esker.

The esker continues straight and ends at the boulder seen in the distance. 

Below is the  stone wall where it starts on top of the esker.

The picture below was taken following the wall off of the esker.

The wall ended at an entrance to a walled in area. The wall we were following is on the right.

To the left, before the entrance, there is a row of boulders with a 5 foot tall standing stone.

The row starts at the standing stone and ends at the entrance. The picture below is a section of the wall we followed in and directly across from the standing stone.

And a close-up of the section above.

A lot of symbolism in these walls.

Below is a picture looking back towards the esker.

Now we enter the enclosure. This isn't your normal square or rectangular farmer's walled enclodure as you will see.

This is the wall that connects to the wall that comes off of the esker. The picture was taken looking back at the entrance.

Below is the same side showing the many curves that it takes.

Next is the back wall.

There are several standing stones built into the walls including this manitou.

The boulder below is in the enclosure and has quartz veins on both sides.

This is a section in the north wall.

More sections of the walls in the enclosure.

Below is a 10 minute video of the entire walk.

The stone is located near Sachuest Beach on Gardiner Pond in Middletown, Rhode Island. Gardiner Pond is a part of Newport, Rhode Island's drinking water supply.

Some close-ups of the stone.

The Gardiner Pond Shell Midden is in another area of the pond on private property and is off limits.The midden was added to the national Register of Historic Places. 

The Gardiner Pond Shell Midden contains various prehistoric shell fossils and other archaeological remains.