Stone Walls

[thclimer]

I’ve always been impressed with look of a hand stacked stonewall, especially since so many of these walls in New England were made in the past using manual labor, maybe a horse, mule or Ox, nothing diesel or hydraulic powered back then.

On our property we have a few, none of them are impressive from what I have seen else ware.

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Its my understanding that the timber on our land was cleared in the mid to late1800’s to produce charcoal for the Iron Works of Troy, NY. These Iron Works in the Troy area made horseshoes, railroad spikes and rivets that fueled the beginning of our country expanding west.

In our area the stones were moved from cleared land for farming including sheep and became some of the property lines.

So lets see some of your pictures of stone walls on your property. I'm sure there are plenty which are way more impressive than the ones on our property.

 

[CATRAT66]

I have a wall around a property up in Clinton county NY but would take a day or six to cut back the reforestation that’s taken place to be able to get a picture that would be worth seeing.

Approximately five feet wide at base and was probably that tall if not higher and runs the perimeter of a three acre property!!

There are some absolutely beautiful houses up there made with stacked field stones too.

I’m with you about being amazed at the amount of manual labor that exerted to clear the trees then the stones and really the walls are an intelligent use of something that was basically a waste/byproduct.

While driving up to the property this spring I saw some Amish folks with a single horse and a low skid (no wheels) loading stones out of a freshly plowed field!!

I thought it was good to see that as old of a practice it is and I mean ancient practice that a man and his two hands can still reshape this world!!

 

[bdhsfz6]

I have just under a mile of stone wall that looks exactly like your pictures. I've often thought about re stacking them in a couple of locations for esthetic reasons, but much of it is along property lines. Getting adjacent land owner permission can be tricky.

 

[CATRAT66]

My wife wants me to clear away for her to go around with her metal detector.
Dam that Oak Island show!!!

I also told her that NY has laws about that and anything she finds has to be turned over to NY and put in their “lost and found box”

Just like it’s not illegal to prospect for gold in NY but any that you find belongs to NY

 

[thclimer]

I didn't know that about finding gold or other items in NY

 

[JeepHead]

The property I just sold but was owned by my family all my life, has an ancient hand built 4' stone wall like this running around 400 yards through a section of the woods. A couple areas fell down 30 years or so ago but much of it is still standing today. I always thought it was super cool as well and wondered who had built it. It was there when my dad was a child too.

 

[CATRAT66]

The law about gold was enacted in 1776.
Just shows how long NY has been making bad laws!!!!

 

[Loaderman22]

In New York off of the Thruway there is an outdoor art "museum" of sorts that has a truly cool exhibit called "The Wall" and the idea behind it is as if a stonewall went for a walk through the woods, so it winds around trees, and down through a pond etc . It's is a really neat exhibit. Here's a link:

Storm King : SK Artwork : Storm King Wall [1998.1]

 

[ponytug]

Thanks @Loaderman22, that wall/exhibit looks amazing!

I know so few people these days who are good at building unmortared walls. (Of course there isn't much rock where we live now...) Growing up the unmortared stone walls were everywhere and it seemed as if most families had at least one family member who was proficient at repair, if not actually building new walls.

I did see this recently:

All the best,

Peter

 

[ultrarunner]

I built a small one to level out a very small ravine as I had stones onsite and some excavation dirt…

Nothing has moved in 20 years and all drystacked as a retaining wall…

Thought was a level area suitable for a pony or horse?