Our future resident, Brenda Caldwell, spent many recent hours cutting back brush that surrounded a mysterious rock structure on Rocky Corner property.

Made of stacked rocks and boulders, the structure measures 16 feet wide by 16 feet long by 7 feet high. Built on a slope, it has a rectangular exterior and a rounded interior with interesting niches. There are 3 sides to the structure with one side beginning at a large outcropping with quartz lines. The higher elevation west side has no wall and is sloped downward so that one could walk down into the chamber.

It was typical in the past, before towns offered trash pick-up, for people to get rid of their garbage in 3 ways; composting, burning and dumping. The last person to live on the Rocky Corner property, Elsie Halter, used the stone structure as a farm dump. We can see broken bottles and pottery inside, items that would not decompose or burn.

We are interested to find out if this stone structure is either native American or colonial European in origin. Our goal is to protect the rock structure from the environmental engineer’s recommendation to fill it in. We have submitted information about it to the Connecticut State Historic Preservation Office.

Serendipitously, the Bethany Land Trust sponsored a free talk on October 7 by Markham Starr, an expert in native American ceremonial stonework. More info here: https://bethanylandtrust.org