FRIDAY'S ROCK WITH LOCAL HISTORY

My entry into #fridaysrock @nat-expressions

This little quiet town I call home was setteled back in 1783. It covers about 39 square miles and has a population of 584. The town's heydays were between the 1830 -1880. During this time period the population was anywhere between 1,200 - 1,600. In those days farming in this area was a mainstay. In order to plant crops and fields of hay for the livestock, the forest floor had to be refashioned. With plow and horse, these pioneers cleared thousands of acers. What a laborious task this had to be.

The pictures to follow are the remnants of these trials and tribulations.

These rock walls stretch for miles in every direction possible. Once these stones were harvested from the ground they would be laid to rest forming walls that have stood the test of time. Many of these walls would outline a farmer's property lines. Other walls were build to fence in livestock. Whatever the case, tons and tons of rock had to be picked, carried, and stacked to construct these fabulous structures. Many of these edifices remain exactly as they were placed 235 years ago.

If you look carefully you can see a deer stand in the left side of the photo. This area is renowned for White Tail Deer and Turkey hunting!

Walls have been heaved and stones litter the ground, as sapplings from long ago have displaced their counterparts.

This decayed old fellow must have been just a diminutive speck of vegetation on the forest floor when the wall was built.

You can see from the time stamp on the pictures that not much time elapsed before I arrived at another section of wall.

Experimenting with our new cameras. Took a few shots with camera in fish eye mode. This particular photo I thought was cool.

The walls in the following three pictures are some of the ones that we constructed to clear land for the tree plantation.
Who needs to go to the gym. I can not conceive the grueling hours that must have been spent completing such a feat!