A Wing-Shaped Stone Points The Way
Standing Out in the Ever-Greener Charlotte, Vermont Woods
Over the long Memorial Day Weekend, I returned to the Charlotte, Vermont trails where I’d found the Hilltop Stone Pile last week. There’s a larger, taller drumlin next to the stony hilltop where I’d found the possible Stone Prayer. After my first visit, I immediately wanted to head back and climb that little mountain next door.
Walking in the bit of a gap there that exists between the two low summits, I spotted this stone from the trail, off in the woods to my right. I’ve been “lamenting” the ongoing spring growth which always, inevitably obscures the old stonework, but this one still managed to catch my eye despite all the fresh green.
Only one way to find out if it’s Anything… Approaching the Stone:
Some views around the Wing-Shaped Stone — all photos by Mike Luoma.
Coming around from the other direction to take a closer look at the oddly shaped “back” side of the Stone:
In the absence of a currently visible horizon, there’s no second stone or feature to line up with to check on any alignments this Wing-Shaped Stone might have. But the Sun Seeker App can show us the route of the rising and setting sun on the Solstices and Equinoxes, and we can at least see if there’s any possibility for solar alignments.
I approached from the East, looking West past the Stone. There is the possibility the shape of the arc of the Wing-Shape of the Stone matches the solar arc of the setting Sun on the Winter Solstice:
Sun Seeker shows us that the Spring Equinox Sunset, depicted by the Light Green Line, is also visible above the Wing-Shaped Stone when looking West. Though not seen because the area in between is forested now, the higher drumlin, the mountain, is in that general direction. I’m not sure exactly how it lines up, but this does raise the potential for the Wing-Shaped Stone to be pointing to a sight reference on the mountain marking the Event.
From the other side of the Wing-Shaped Stone, from the West side looking to the East, the same arc of the Wing-Shape appears to potentially follow the line of the Sunrise of the Spring Equinox, though, again, there is no second reference to “sight” the alignment upon for verification.
Despite this Wing-Shaped Stone pointing towards the mountain, I didn’t find much else that struck me as possible Indigenous work on this day of the trip as I climbed the mountain, checked out the summit, and circled back around on the other side. Though, there was a degraded Stone Pile in an arguably agricultural context, and several other intriguingly shaped stones scattered across the landscape.
And a beautiful view from an overlook on the side of the mountain…
That winged stone definitely resembles the big one here on the upper terrace of our property for sure. And the small rock piles also.
I’m having a lot of logging performed here in the next few months. I’ve informed the gentleman what to look out for and what to protect and not disturb. I will be monitoring his progress daily. Hopefully our property as a whole we be more open and easier to access all the other stone assemblages on it.