Connecticut’s endangered stone walls

My parents have a couple of God-knows-how-old stone walls on their property in Connecticut, and I’ve never paid them much attention except when investigating the crannies for lizards and snakes.

It turns out, though, that these historic remnants of the state’s farming past are in danger from developers and thieves of various sorts.

They sometimes come in broad daylight, with bulldozers and other heavy equipment, loading rocks from Connecticut’s old stone walls into dump trucks and carting them away to beautify another home, decorate a driveway or make a rustic entrance to a mall.

More surreptitious scavengers of stone work in the dark or slip deep into the woods, where old stone walls often exist in isolation, glimpsed only by hikers. After they pluck the most desirable ones, weathered stones covered in lichen to establish their antique pedigree, they typically leave behind a jumbled, rock-strewn mess.

In most places, salvaging or removing such stones with a landowner’s permission is lawful, but from the historical point of view, archaeologists and preservationists say, it is a crime, a theft of history. Stone walls are an important part of the landscape, delineating where settlements and farms existed, and how they operated. They tell a story about who we were — and are.

Much of the time the scavengers have the permission of the property owners who have no particular need or affection for their stacked stone treasures. Some towns have zoning ordinances that regulate the mining of stone walls, but the ones mentioned in the article are mainly about walls on or abutting public land.

Then there’s the question of the few poor laws out there being enforced. Here’s the spoiler: they aren’t.

4 thoughts on “Connecticut’s endangered stone walls

  1. Before casting rocks at these “thieves” I think it prudent to first ask yourself: How many of these people are just plain ignorant, rather than outright deliberate thieves?

    I would bet more people just see a “bunch of old stones that look pretty,” rather than see a historical artifact.

    Personally, I can’t bring myself to lay any sort of moral blame on those in which that may be the case.

    1. If you go onto other people’s property and take things without permission, that’s stealing. There’s really no mystery about it. For anyone to be ignorant of such a basic element of property rights as they are defined in this country has to be either a child, cognitively impaired or raised by wolves. Actually scratch that last one, because wolves have a very clear understanding of territorial boundaries.

      The sad fact is these walls are stolen, often by corporate real estate interests, because they are historical and beautiful. It’s not ignorance of their value that has driven this ugly trend. It’s the keen realization of it.

  2. I was referring to this part:

    “More surreptitious scavengers of stone work in the dark or slip deep into the woods, where old stone walls often exist in isolation, glimpsed only by hikers.”

    Of course it is stealing if they go onto private property and start taking things. At the very least it is trespassing.

    Though “the deep woods” could be private property, most likely it is owned by the state. (I dunno how it is in Connecticut, but in Pennsylvania, “the deep woods” are usually state lands, not private property.)

    But, here in PA….in the “PA Wilds” which is a huge tract of state-owned forest, you could get get in trouble for removing any rocks or trees. Even if said rocks had no historical value, or said trees were already down naturally and has died. In that case, it isn’t that it’s “stealing,” but rather “destroying state forests.”

  3. Its my land
    Those walls were built so families could provide for themselves and their children
    I would like to farm and provide for mine
    The walls stop this
    The walls come down
    Food in my son and daughters mouth means more to me then rocks in a straight line.

    Enough said

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