A Few Megaliths Short of a Henge
A few years ago, I went to North Salem, New Hampshire, to view America’s Stonehenge. As I paid for three adult admissions, the cashier warned they hadn’t cleaned up from the previous evening’s events, and not to be surprised at the bodies left behind. It was a weird welcome to a weird place.
In 1734, Seth Pattee purchased the property now called America’s Stonehenge. He built a house, barn and sawmill there. The property remained in the Pattee family until 1863. During and after the Pattee years, the land was used to produce both lumber and stone. Although not of monument grade, the granite was fine for more utilitarian uses. Somewhere between ten and forty percent of the site was removed to Lawrence, Massachusetts for curbstones and the Lawrence Dam. It was not until the early twentieth century, when the property was virtually abandoned, that the stories began and the site became a local attraction.
In 1935, the Boston Globe published an article to the effect that the “caves” on the property were the dwellings of nomadic Indians or perhaps more recent robbers. In 1937, William Goodwin, an amateur archeologist, purchased the property. He had a theory that the stone structures were the remains of a monastery of Irish monks, and the press wrote many equally imaginative stories about it.
Goodwin died in the early 1950s. In 1956, the present owner, Robert Stone, purchased the property. He built a Visitor’s Center and opened the site to the public.
The tour began at a stone shed called “The Watch House.” It was reconstructed in 1978. Its original purpose is unknown, but the simplest explanation was that it was a storage shed, probably built in Pattee’s time. A pathway leads up the hill, marked by stones on other side. The site’s owners call it a “Sacred Way” or “Processional Path,” but there seems no reason to either date its formation to pre-colonial times or why a marked wagon path should be anything other than what it appears.
Near the top of the hill is a familiar sight to any New England hiker: a cellar hole. This was apparently the home of the Pattee family. In itself, it is utterly prosaic, a sad reminder of the many who tried and failed to scrape a living from the thin-soiled rocky fields of New Hampshire. It is claimed that at least one Pattee was an abolitionist and that this site may have been a stop along the Underground Railroad, moving slaves to freedom in Canada. As evidence a pair of rusty shackles is displayed in the visitor’s center. No explanation is given as to why an escaped slave would have been shackled in the first place, or why they were not removed until New Hampshire.
Nearby is a low triangular shelter topped with a large slab. The site owners point out that many similar buildings are found in Ireland, and wonder at what their common purpose might be. It looks to me very much like the sort of shelter in which sheep or goats might take refuge from the prevailing winds, just as they do in Ireland.
The most important structure is referred to as the “Oracle Chamber.” It is a relatively large building made of granite slabs and would have made a comfortable dwelling for several people. It was clearly designed to stay dry and smoke-free, with adequate drainage and ventilation. A simple stylized carving they called a “running deer” can be seen on the interior north wall, but to my untutored eye it looks far more like a running rabbit; as North American deer don’t have antlers that swoop back in a long curve like an ibex. Other elements of the structure are given more fantastic names. A claustrophobia-inducing niche is called a “Secret Bed” and a narrow shaft a “Speaking Tube.” These terms only make sense if you accept the delightfully inventive premise that I will discuss below. The last part of the main complex is the so-called Sacrificial Table, a large and heavy stone slab with a groove or gutter around its edges.
At various points around the central site are found rocks that have been tipped on end to form monoliths. Let me be clear that these in no way resemble the Stonehenge in England. Stonehenge’s stones are neatly trimmed pillars standing over thirteen feet tall, made of stones imported from as far away as Pembrokeshire in Wales. New Hampshire’s stones are local, moved no great distance, crudely carved if carved at all, and simply tilted so that their longest axis is vertical. The tallest of them is less than three feet. It is apparent that, if this was intended to be a calendar, the closest large stone to each desired point was used; little attempt was made to form a perfect circle of stones like that on Salisbury Plain.
All of this is quite interesting in itself. It is possible that the calendar stones were part of an ancient Indian astrological observatory, and that the “Oracle Chamber” at least was a significant structure, possibly a dwelling or perhaps even the central “church” of a now-forgotten Indian religion. Interesting, but not sufficient to bring in the tourists.
It was Goodwin who found the “Sacrificial Table,” and indeed it was remarkable that such a large flat chunk of granite hadn’t been carted off by the quarrymen. Goodwin clung to his idea of Irish monks, but having found a grooved flat rock suitable for blood sacrifice, the monks appear to have abandoned Christianity and reverted to a fanciful Druidic cult. The secret bed was a hiding place for the abbot or high druid, and he would speak his mystic oracles through the speaking tube. The current owners don’t swear it to be true, but ample suggestion is given. The cardinal calendar stones, for example, are named not for the dates of equinoxes and cross-quarters, but for Druid holy days: Samhain, Yule, Imbolc, and so on.
Tomorrow: The Plot Thickens!
In 1734, Seth Pattee purchased the property now called America’s Stonehenge. He built a house, barn and sawmill there. The property remained in the Pattee family until 1863. During and after the Pattee years, the land was used to produce both lumber and stone. Although not of monument grade, the granite was fine for more utilitarian uses. Somewhere between ten and forty percent of the site was removed to Lawrence, Massachusetts for curbstones and the Lawrence Dam. It was not until the early twentieth century, when the property was virtually abandoned, that the stories began and the site became a local attraction.
In 1935, the Boston Globe published an article to the effect that the “caves” on the property were the dwellings of nomadic Indians or perhaps more recent robbers. In 1937, William Goodwin, an amateur archeologist, purchased the property. He had a theory that the stone structures were the remains of a monastery of Irish monks, and the press wrote many equally imaginative stories about it.
Goodwin died in the early 1950s. In 1956, the present owner, Robert Stone, purchased the property. He built a Visitor’s Center and opened the site to the public.
The tour began at a stone shed called “The Watch House.” It was reconstructed in 1978. Its original purpose is unknown, but the simplest explanation was that it was a storage shed, probably built in Pattee’s time. A pathway leads up the hill, marked by stones on other side. The site’s owners call it a “Sacred Way” or “Processional Path,” but there seems no reason to either date its formation to pre-colonial times or why a marked wagon path should be anything other than what it appears.
Near the top of the hill is a familiar sight to any New England hiker: a cellar hole. This was apparently the home of the Pattee family. In itself, it is utterly prosaic, a sad reminder of the many who tried and failed to scrape a living from the thin-soiled rocky fields of New Hampshire. It is claimed that at least one Pattee was an abolitionist and that this site may have been a stop along the Underground Railroad, moving slaves to freedom in Canada. As evidence a pair of rusty shackles is displayed in the visitor’s center. No explanation is given as to why an escaped slave would have been shackled in the first place, or why they were not removed until New Hampshire.
Nearby is a low triangular shelter topped with a large slab. The site owners point out that many similar buildings are found in Ireland, and wonder at what their common purpose might be. It looks to me very much like the sort of shelter in which sheep or goats might take refuge from the prevailing winds, just as they do in Ireland.
The most important structure is referred to as the “Oracle Chamber.” It is a relatively large building made of granite slabs and would have made a comfortable dwelling for several people. It was clearly designed to stay dry and smoke-free, with adequate drainage and ventilation. A simple stylized carving they called a “running deer” can be seen on the interior north wall, but to my untutored eye it looks far more like a running rabbit; as North American deer don’t have antlers that swoop back in a long curve like an ibex. Other elements of the structure are given more fantastic names. A claustrophobia-inducing niche is called a “Secret Bed” and a narrow shaft a “Speaking Tube.” These terms only make sense if you accept the delightfully inventive premise that I will discuss below. The last part of the main complex is the so-called Sacrificial Table, a large and heavy stone slab with a groove or gutter around its edges.
At various points around the central site are found rocks that have been tipped on end to form monoliths. Let me be clear that these in no way resemble the Stonehenge in England. Stonehenge’s stones are neatly trimmed pillars standing over thirteen feet tall, made of stones imported from as far away as Pembrokeshire in Wales. New Hampshire’s stones are local, moved no great distance, crudely carved if carved at all, and simply tilted so that their longest axis is vertical. The tallest of them is less than three feet. It is apparent that, if this was intended to be a calendar, the closest large stone to each desired point was used; little attempt was made to form a perfect circle of stones like that on Salisbury Plain.
All of this is quite interesting in itself. It is possible that the calendar stones were part of an ancient Indian astrological observatory, and that the “Oracle Chamber” at least was a significant structure, possibly a dwelling or perhaps even the central “church” of a now-forgotten Indian religion. Interesting, but not sufficient to bring in the tourists.
It was Goodwin who found the “Sacrificial Table,” and indeed it was remarkable that such a large flat chunk of granite hadn’t been carted off by the quarrymen. Goodwin clung to his idea of Irish monks, but having found a grooved flat rock suitable for blood sacrifice, the monks appear to have abandoned Christianity and reverted to a fanciful Druidic cult. The secret bed was a hiding place for the abbot or high druid, and he would speak his mystic oracles through the speaking tube. The current owners don’t swear it to be true, but ample suggestion is given. The cardinal calendar stones, for example, are named not for the dates of equinoxes and cross-quarters, but for Druid holy days: Samhain, Yule, Imbolc, and so on.
Tomorrow: The Plot Thickens!