Rock solid case for saving our stone walls

The ghost of a snake rail fence zigzags through the woods. I can tell its old location by the line of stones that once were piled at its base.

Fences like these were constructed here from the late 1700s through the first part of the next century, when wood was less plentiful and before barbed wire kept the livestock from going over the wall. The rails were laid without upright posts, end across end, which dictated their serpentine form. Today one generally sees these zigzag fences adorning old battlefields (and, oddly enough, also running along a side road in Norfolk), but their day is done and only the stones remain.

Most of our historic stone walls are made of “field stone” rather than quarried stone. Granite, gneiss and even limestone left behind by the glaciers were most commonly used for wall building, with granite and gneiss preferred because of their harness. Plowed fields in our region regularly produce a new crop of rocks from soil layers beneath, and over time these might be added to existing walls.

One can tell a lot about the historic use of a piece of land by its stone walls. Those small enclosures that contain stones of all sizes may have been cropland, while those constructed with larger rocks were more likely unplowed pasture. In the 1830s, the height of agriculture and of land clearing in our region, Litchfield County was a significant producer of cheese, butter, pork, beef, dairy cattle and sheep, along with wheat and rye.

There is no statewide protection afforded to Connecticut’s historic stone walls. Those located along designated scenic roads, within historic districts, or in a handful of municipalities where there are additional safeguards in place benefit from some safeguards, but for the most part these walls, often centuries old, are vulnerable to dismantling and destruction.

Along with cedar trees poached for fence posts, the illicit removal of stones from old walls is a widespread problem on conservation lands.

Oddly enough, in my land protection work I sometimes come across grants of conservation easement that do not identify the archaeological or historic features of the protected property among their conservation purposes. Stone walls may be scenic, but their true value lies in the evidence they contain of historic land use, and as such they should be considered artifacts, worthy of protection in their own right.

 Tim Abbott is program director of Housatonic Valley Association’s Litchfield Hills Greenprint. His blog is at greensleeves.typepad.com.