Tuesday, March 28, 2023

The Joy of Moving Rocks at The Sheep Pen


The Trails Committee is rebuilding a wetland crossing on Oak Valley Trail know as "The Sheep Pen".  It's know as that because there are piles of zig zag rocks crossing the trail that indicate that there used to be split rail fences enclosing some type of livestock, probably sheep, in the late 1700's or early 1800's in this location.  For more on the Sheep Pen go here.

Back in the Day intrepid Connecticut Yankee Farmers would wait until later winter or early spring, take their teams of oxen, stone boats, and 10 children, along with assorted Indians and slaves and pluck the rocks that the New England Frost moved up to the surface of the fields every year.  They would then roll the rocks onto the stone boat and have the oxen haul the stone boats to piles of rocks  or stone wall locations along the edges of the fields; usually where it was wet, or it dropped off, to create more usable and plow-able fields.