I am local to the Sadsbury Woods Preserve and like you am fascinated with it. I have also tried to find it's history. What I have learned comes from local folks and is hearsay at best. Before it became the Sadsbury Woods Preserved it was known locally as The Step Rocks. Many enjoyed hiking the woods and wandering up and down the rocks, particularly in the "quarry" area. They claimed that the walls were the remains of old "goat pens" I have a hard time believing this as I know of no goat that those pens would keep in. At one point stone was quarried, there is a marker at that spot. There is marble stone that was once quarried but the quality was poor, it was very eroded and not useful so that was discontinued. There also was mining - I did actually find a mine that went into the ground, but never knew what was pulled out of the mine. It was covered up and I did not have the courage to explore any more than the outside. The site was known to the Native Americans and many arrow head and stone tools have been found through out the area. It may have been a source of chert for the Native Americans and the pits that you saw could have been where they dug up the chert. The area is the headwater to the Buck Run stream, springs have popped up and then dried up only to pop up somewhere else. I think the place is beautiful and very old. I believe many have fallen under it's spell and left their mark in some way, building walls and wells, digging here and there and then others came after them and did the same many times over so it is now hard to tell what is recent and what is very old.

@hiworldstephensonultranate290

6 ай бұрын

GT Fantastic

@afritz12345

5 ай бұрын

I'm in Parkesburg, would love to run into this fella out in woods. Great videos!

Sometimes there are many reasons for stone walls. Several years ago we built our current home in the Poconos in several mountain acres. Going up our back hill to explore we found a stone border about the height of the one in this video. We eventually found out they were put their very long ago to denote property barriers from a house long gone on the other side. They have built in this area since the late 1700s and often marked their property lines with small stone borders like that instead of fencing.

Cliff, when farmers back in the day cleared their fields with plows on newly forested land, they would stack the rocks along the border of their fields as they pulled them out of that ground. It doesn't necessarily mean it's a foundation. You see the same thing in Ireland. Except in Ireland they kept those fields clear for hundreds of years and still use them today, unlike in the United States where the small farms were overgrown by trees. So now you have stone walls out in the middle of a forest.

@rikspector

6 ай бұрын

That's what I was thinking, cleared farmland when there were few trees. Thanks!

Thanks for the adventure, Cliff.

I've seen this in indiana and the stone walls in the woods was mainly keeping track of pigs. Sometimes you had to separate them. The land wasn't good enough for cattle etc...

Geez Cliff,you ran us face first into 2 trees. 😂😂lol Do ya think maybe some of the walls were a boundary for something. Interesting hike. Loved it.❤❤❤❤

Hope you're doing well. Thank you for the hikes, maps, talks, I love them all.

The remains of the Compass Quarry which was established between 1950 and 1960 to collect building stone. The quarry was abandoned in the 1980's and in 1998, acquired by the Natural Lands Trust as part of the preserve. This is on a couple of trail maps and you can also see it on Google Maps if you click on the Terrain lens. It basically behind the building on 120 Compass Road. The walls and everything were tied to that farm house at 414 Skiles. I saw the connections and the cleared area on an old 1950 map. Another observation I noticed on Google Maps is that they just logged a large amount of trees off of Compass Road right above the quarry.., kind of weird considering its called a Tree Preserve. Thanks for the vid

Time spent in the woods is always good!

Really enjoyed that thanks Cliff. Loved the walls, very mysterious. Thanks for taking me along. Please take care

Thank you for the adventure!

Incredible amount of work was put into whatever that place was.

Nice me and my dog do things like this.I love to explore.

Cliff, it looks like more than a few folks did all that wall stone work. I'm thinking a small village with some walls forming a long lost fort from the 1600/1700's?

Great explore. Thanks for sharing

that was a nice hike!

Missed yah yesterday, no video..... it's ok great video tonight ty Steve On To The Next please

A bit of a puzzle indeed. Thanks for sharing!

I could answer a lot of these questions for you Cliff but i would have to be there with you in person so i can see the full scope of the land

Reminds me of mount hope michaux .👍

My first thought is that the was an old farm, maybe dairy or sheep. I don’t think it was a farm used for planting crops, the land didn’t look “flat”. I also think one of those dugouts was a foundation. Also don’t discount that it could be of Native American origin.

These stone walls are all over New York's Hudson valley. I was told that during the depression the state hired people too build these walls in order to spark the economy .The walls were suppose to delineate the property lines. But I never checked if it was factual.

@tedrice1026

4 ай бұрын

Most were built during the sheep boom from about 1810 to 1850, to keep the sheep in the pastures. Most of Eastern NY and Vermont was totally deforested to pasture sheep. The rock was removed from the fields. Originally most were laid up as high as possible with the rocks available, and if necessary topped with wood rails. The frost would heave them and parts had to be rebuilt every year - once the land was abandoned they fell over and became what they are today. The boom collapsed in 1850 and ended except for a brief resurgence during the Civil War. Most farmers switched to dairy, which the coming of the railroads made possible. People also switched to heating with coal brought by rail, since wood was getting expensive. Barbed wire was invented about 1867.

@tidemover

4 ай бұрын

@@tedrice1026 Thanks very informative . In New York in westchester putnam and dutchess counties those walls are everywhere.

Cliff, At 13:00 there seems to be something crawling along the path to the right, did you see it? Those walls had to be enclosures, most likely farm animals of some kind. Like you said, they were a lot of labor and time. IT was most likely open land long ago but now I love all those big healthy looking trees, it really is a preserve and must teem with birds in the spring and summer. Thanks, Rik Spector

Thank you Cliff.

Great video as always Cliff. Very interesting, beautiful area. Northern part of PA looks like we will get a big snow next week, at least the models this far out say we have a good chance. Hopefully you get one big one before spring is sprung. I hate an inch or two. If it is gonna snow, let it shut everything down for a day.

More on ceremonial stone landscapes: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceremonial_stone_landscape

I miss Prayers for Brian Ireland Im Down 3 Weekksnow thks God Nl

@hiworldstephensonultranate290

5 ай бұрын

Thanks Highlighter 👋🌲🌳

As I was watching this video a question came to my mind. If you had a time machine and could go back in time to a place you have visited where would you go to spend time with those living there? I think I might be speaking for a lot of people but I think it would be a awesome idea for a future video idk just a thought

A little bit of hard work WW. I'd say a lot of hard work it is very interesting

This has colonial farm community written all over it. I grew up in Dauphin County, where property lines were the same way. The closer you get to Philadelphia, the more elaborated sites like this become.

Looks like stone animal pens.

Hopefully that well isn’t very deep. I’d hate to see someone fall into it.

Could there have been a small community there?

Water driven wheel?

Indigenous