Stone Walls

 If you live in Maine or any of the New England states for that matter , you see them every day. You pass them any time you travel anywhere along our roads.

Some can be seen clearly with little effort and others are hidden by time and harder to see.

We have some in my area that are over 250 years old and still stand tall today!   These were formed by the hands of the first settlers to our area in the mid 1700’s

They served many purposes for those who built them over the generations.  Some form boundary markers between properties. Some ring fields allowing crops to be planted, and some keep cattle and farm animals from wandering away.

I am of course talking about stone walls.

 It is estimated that New England has over 250,000 miles of stone walls crisscrossing our land. 

For the most part each stone wall  had a purpose when it was assembled all those years ago. Most likely that purpose, a purpose that required hundreds of hours of back breaking labor too accomplish , has been gone for centuries.

You can find them deep in the woods with no sign of any homestead or farm around and yet there they are everywhere creating sections that at one time had significant meaning. 

There remains a lattice work of squares and boundaries whose purpose has long been forgotten and yet there they stand continuing the mission they were given.

When you look at a stone wall, one must marvel in the achievement.  To accomplish what they did with nothing more than  simple tools and back breaking hard work, gives credence  to  how important it was at the time.

Our rocky soil here in Maine must be cleared to add any value beyond timber. As every settler to our area found out shortly after arriving,  the number one crop in Maine should be “rocks” .  

To clear a  wood lot for planting took not only eliminating the trees and  stumps, but  the rocks above and below the ground had to be removed so the oxen could plow the field for planting. 

Millions upon millions of rocks were picked up by hand and placed on the ever-growing miles of stone walls. This task was often split into two parts, the largest rocks were removed using oxen or horse teams to drag them to their resting place, the rocks that were so large only the men could carry them were done first leaving the rest for the women and children. 

That was a time when child labor and value to the farm started much earlier than they do today. Kids were expected to help, and the time-consuming task of lugging rocks was a good way to help.

 I am sure many walls were years in the making and probably a constant project as the farms in our area grew and agriculture expanded. 

 Woodland needed to become farmland, rocks needed to be moved. It was a never-ending battle between the earth and those looking to harness its potential.

Although we love the iconic look of the stone walls that meander along our property line or rim the edges of our local fields . I can only imagine the frustration settlers and early farmers in our area had for the entire process .

When you look at a stone wall keep in mind every rock had to be handled  by someone many years ago. 

You can pick any rock on any old stone wall and somewhere in its distant past it has a story to tell. Who picked it up ? What year did it leave the ground? And finally, when was the last time a hand held it?  

Each rock has a story, each wall  a legacy of those who labored away for a reason we may never truly  understand.

We see them now and don’t give them a second thought, or maybe we don’t even see them anymore. 

They are such a part of our environment that I would guess,  most don’t even notice them as they pass them by each day.

Each wall had a purpose, each wall was critically important to the hands that labored to build it and yet today they are just a haunting reminder of a time we have mostly forgotten.

 A time when stories were written in the rocks but sadly, we have  forgotten how to read the writing. 

So, the next time you pass by a stone wall, stop, and think for just a minute, how long has it stretched along its path, who may have worked to build it and why was it was important. 

If only the Stone Walls could talk,  just imagine the stories they would tell about those who came before us and the value they placed in something we hardly notice today .