Letter to Members and Wall Enthusiasts

TO:                 Members & Friends of the Stone Wall Initiative (SWI)

FROM:           Robert M. Thorson

DATE:          March 09 , 2005

The Stone Wall Initiative (SWI) is having a major makeover. We call your attention to five important announcements:

Merger with Connecticut State Museum of Natural History:  The long-planned move of the SWI to Connecticut State Museum of Natural History (CSMNH) is now underway.  Though housed in a state museum, the SWI will maintain files for all of the New England states (including New York: Long Island and east of the Hudson River).

Physically, the SWI will be located in the Office of the State Archaeologist, Building #5, on Horsebarn Hill Road. This is the place where volunteers will work and where visitors can examine:

• Reference collection of books and articles on on stone walls (not to be checked out)
• Reference collection of stones collected from all over New England. These will help you to identify stone composition; stone shapes, and surface marks.
• Geological maps (bedrock and surficial) for all states; maps, and files.
• The beginnings of a filing system for specific sites, which we are beginning to organize.

Membership: Finally, we have compiled an address lfile of members of the SWI, and are in the process of making a list serve to make contact with as many of you as possible. Our mailing list includes about 600 members (individuals, non-profits, environmental organizations, history groups, etc.) consisting of those who completed the membership application, as well as those who have written the SWI with comments, inquiries, or invitations for a program.  We will not publish the list. If you do not wish to receive mail or Email from us and wish your name removed from our list, just let us know.   Please encourage others who share your interest to contact the SWI. 

Affiliation with the TNE Project at the University of Connecticut : We now have a faster, more visually pleasing, easier-to-use web site for the SWI at the same URL address: http://stonewall.uconn.edu.   It was re-designed by Andri Ioannou of the Teachers for a New Era (TNE) Project (www.tne.uconn.edu), a university wide project based out of the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut.  The Connecticut State Museum of Natural History, the TNE Project and the SWI Professor Thorson will maintain the site, with frequent updates, especially regarding management of this resource.  Simply log on to see what’s new.  (If you had the previous site book-marked, you will need to replace it with the new link.

Field Guide to Stone Walls: Walker & Company has just published Exploring Stone Walls: A Field Guide to New England’s Stone Walls, by Robert M. Thorson.  This inexpensive ($14), durable, copiously illustrated field guide will soon be in a bookstore near you.  This two-year project was initiated by SWI members after hundreds of requests for specific information about stone walls.   Essentially this new field guide is a bundle of answers and information to countless questions and comments received from SWI members.  Supplements to this book are posted on the web site under the page for Exploring Stone Walls.

Call for Volunteers: The SWI finally has a place where a volunteer can work under the supervision of Professor Thorson, or the staff of the Office of the State Archaeologist. If you would like to volunteer for as little as a few hours per week at the SWI, please let us know.

We look forward to hearing from you.  Pass the word. 

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