News
Updated to July 11, 2005
July 11, 2005: Updates will be discontinued until late August, when the SWI office will re-open for the academic year.
June 27, 2005: A review of Exploring Stone Walls by Don McGiver. is posted. Don is an environmental planner for the Town of Concord, MA and a member of the Littleton Conservation Trust. He directs his review principally to others with a responsibility for managing the historic heritage landscape. Click here to read the review.
June 24, 2005: SWI Coordinator Robert M. Thorson presented his last event of the spring season for the Naromi Land Trust in Sherman, Connecticut. Just for fun, you should know that Naromi is short for NAROMIYOCKNOWHUSUNKATANKSHUNK Brook, the namesake for the trust.
June 3, 2005: The Shaker Barn Foundation seen on May 31 by Robert Thorson in Harvard, Massachusetts was so interesting, he just had to take a picture and post in on the web.
June 1, 2005: Recently there was an NPR interview describing that the most famous stone wall in the world -- you guessed it, the Great Wall of China -- is being degraded and partially dismantled by localized development.
May 25, 2005: Perhaps you've noticed. The SWI website is under a massive construction project to incorporate the new curricula for kids of all ages. .
May 25, 2005: The stone wall learning center just had its first two visits by school age kids. The first was the Monetssori School of Greater Hartford who brought rocks for me to identify.
April 28, 2005: Letter to SWI members (Draft) in preparation of email listserve distribution.
April 6, 2005: Strip Mining: The Dark Side of the Stone Trade. This is my response to a letter soliciting the sale of interior stone walls.
March 30, 2005: Posted a list of key terms used in stone wall science. For definitions, rever to the book, Exploring Stone Walls.
March 30, 2005: I repaired the page Ten Great Walls.
March 16, 2005: Posted link to Monterey Masonry, a high-end masonry business in Sheffield, MA,in which stonework is done with the utmost care and quality under the supervision of master mason, Mark Mendel.
March 9, 2005: Change of address to Connecticut State Museum of Natural History finalized on the Menu link "contacts" above. Please send all stonewall email to stonewall.uconn.edu. Use the SWI phone number at 860-486-6198. The mailing address is Stone Wall Initiative, CSMNH, 2019 Hillside Road, Campus Box 1023, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-1023
February 29: The conservation commission from Tiverton Rhode Island allowed us to post their draft ordinance for stone wall preservation(.pdf)
February 17: A complete hierarchical list of stone objects based on Domain, class, family, type, subtype, and variant is now attached. For an explanation of the list, refer to Chapter 9 of Exploring Stone Walls.
Feburary 16: Overflow crowd at the UConn Co-op for the publication party for Exploring Stone Walls.
Feburary 13 : Cover article in Northeast Magazine in The Hartford Courant.
February 12 : Member's Photo Gallery. We have started the process of posting photos sent to the SWI. They are sumbitted for a variety of reasons: to get help identifying a wall; to share with others; or to contribute a fine example.
February 11 : A landscape lament for the loss of stone walls. Published by the Winter 2005 issue of Connecticut Woodlands, the magazine of the Connecticut Forest and Park Association. Read the Essay on Losing Stone Walls (.pdf)
February 11 : Hundreds of correspondents have become members, simply by writing a letter. This is a sampler of correspondence, ranging from turtle migrations, stealing walls, regulating them, painting them with milk, contacting the government, and quoting someone special.
February 11 : A new photographer is featured, as well as several internet sites from the appendix of Exploring Stone Walls are now posted.
February 10 : We created a link to supplement to Exploring Stone Walls that includes three things: color versions of the most important walls; color versions of the maps used to identify stone wall provinces, and an addendum to the taxonomy for stone objects that are not walls.
February 9: Letter to Members and Wall Enthusiasts
February 9: Thorson posted a photo gallery of Ten Great Walls to accompany a February 13 feature story by the Hartford Courant.
February 8: First published review of Exploring Stone Walls (that I am aware of). "It's only natural -- stone walling." by Steven Slosberg, The New London Day, Sunday, February 6, Region, Page D1.
February 8: Physically, we moved the SWI to the Office of State Archaeology in the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History, Horsebarn Hill Campus. [read more]
February 4: Exploring Stone Walls arrives in office. They look great!
January 26: Publication of article in Connecticut Woodlands Magazine.
January 15 2005: Link posted to keynote speech for Connecticut Science Educator’s Professional Development Day. [read more]
Dec 31 : School Programs
Classroom enrichment and Teacher Professional Development Programs are now available.
[read more]
Dec 30 : Blogging Stone Walls
Check out David Sucher's Dec. 19 posting of the SWI homepage at City Comforts
Dec. 22 : Managing Stone Walls
Though Robert Thorson has been speaking about this for months, he finally posted specific recommendations for stone wall management on this link. This was done to accompany publication of a case study on stone-wall destruction published in the Hartford Courant's Commentary section titled PLACE, on Sunday December 19. [read more]
Dec. 22 : Mapping Stone Walls
Color versions of the maps from Exploring Stone Walls. Used for understanding geographic variation in fieldstone walls. [read more]
Dec 18 : Publication Party for Exploring Stone Walls
A Field Guide to New England's Stone Walls. It will be available in bookstores sometime in January, 2005. There is no official publication date yet, but there will be a free publication party/signing on Febrary 17, at 4:00 PM at the UCONN Co-Op Bookstore. [read more]
November - Photo Essay of Stone Walls
Jon Alden, from Westport, Massachusetts, provides us with a ink to beautiful photographs of stone walls in that town. [read more]
November - Making New Stone Look Old
Here is my not-so-secret formula for giving walls that "stone-washed" look as fast as possible. It's based totally on theory rather than experience. Several folks are testing it to see if it works. If you have a better idea, let me know.
[read more]
Stealing Stone Walls
Hot Rocks: Stone Walls Disappear Across the Region; State Police Arrest Waterford man: Sunday Feature Story by By David Collins, (Staff Columnist) October 31, 2004 [read more]
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