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Stone Wall News - Updated April 20, 2008
Pasture Fences, Block Island, RI. RECENT NEWS April 20, 2008: NOT MUCH NEWS: Professor Thorson is largely done with his spring 2008 speaking schedule. The folks Bedford, Stoughton, and Chest erfield, MA seem quite fired up about stone wall conservation. We are ready for the next listserve next week. March 5, 2008: SPRING EVENT CALENDAR IN PROGRESS: Professor Thorson has updated the programs for Spring 2008 through March 11, and will complete the rest by that date. Sorry for the delay. December 12, 2007: UNUSUAL MEMBER PHOTO POSTED ON GALLERY PAGE. Colin Harty sent a photo that speaks volumes about the earliest fence-line stone walls of New England. It's under the link to Membership, then member contributions. Click here to get there right away. Also, thanks to those who have responded to the list serve sent out earlier this month. Many of us are on too many lists. Hopefully, this isn't one of them. December 12, 2007: ADD FOR WALL STONE. As you may know already, the Stone Wall Initiative opposes the legal stripmining of stone wall because it converts archaeology, woodland habitat into architecture. The add below -- sent by a member -- is a particularly boldfaced advertisiment for stripmining. I have changed the contact information to prevent sending them business. LANDSCAPE, HARDSCAPE, hundreds of tons of very old FIELDSTONE - $40 FIELDSTONE WALLS,VERY OLD, IN PLACE, AGED FOR YEARS,YOU PICK THE STONE YOU WANT,WOULD BE GREAT FOR WATERFEATURES,WALLS,DRIVEWAY ENTRANCES, RETAININGB WALLS ,LANDSCAPING MY CELL 207-318-9637. I HAVE ALL SIZES this stone is in place and is not scratched up from being moved around from machinery At only $40 a ton if you are a landscaper or hardscape company you could resell and make good money. Easy access and close to the highway. Location: Gray, Maine
December 4, 2007: LISTSERVE BEING SENT OUT: Below is the text of a list serve announcement that just went out to those on our mailing list. Dear Stone Wall Aficionados: IMPORTANT NOTE: You are on this listserve either because you asked to join the Stone Wall Initiative (SWI), or because you have been an active correspondent with Professor Thorson about stone wall issues. If you do not want to be on this list, please contact the SWI, most easily at stonewall.uconn.edu. My apologies for taking so long since the last announcement. Getting our list updated required the help of Joe Armington, a work study student at UCONN and a graduating senior. He's adding the next few hundred names at the moment. Thanks Joe. I am pleased to announce that we are making progress on all four objectives of the SWI. Here are some examples of recent events. CONSERVATION (1) Today, December 4, the Wall Street Journal carried a short article titled Taking Historic Stone Walls Crosses Boundary for Some. This was in response to a December 3 NPR (National Public Radio) story carried nationally on Morning Edition and produced by WNPR in Hartford by Lucy Nalpathanchil . If you missed it, its titled (2) Ed Bell from the Massachusetts Historical Commision forwarded me the following link. http://www.mass.gov/dcr/stewardship/histland/terra_firma5.pdf (3) The latest stone wall ordinance I know of was passed in the lovely Litchfield Hills town of Washington, Connecticut. I belive it was on Nov. 6. The reg was forwarded to me by the writer George Krimsky, who published an article in the Waterbury Republican American about a recent conference on the historic agricultural landscape, at which I spoke. (4) This fall, an Associated Press feature story by Stephanie Reitz circulated widely in many New England and some national newspapers. The citation I have on my desk is titled "N.E.'s stout stone walls no match for thieves: Groups race to save an icon." in the Sunday Boston Globe. INVESTIGATION I am in the process of finalizing a working taxonomy for stone walls. This fall I completed a project with Barbara Donahue for John Milner Associates of Littleton, MA for a Cultural Resource Management Survey in and north of Saugus, MA. In October, we tried out the taxonomy with the staff and visiting scientists at Harvard Forest, in Petershsham, MA. EDUCATION This September, Kevin Thorson (my son, home from college) manufactured twenty additional teaching kits for the Stone Wall Secrets educational plan, as pictured on the web site. He also made twenty "math sticks," which are like simple transits, used to map walls as outdoor math exercises. The Connecticut State Museum of Natural History (Univesity of Connecticut) finished its first permanent exhibit. The lead to the exhibit is a stone wall. APPRECIATION The schedule of public talks continues, and will be updated soon. Thanks for helping the investigation and conservation of New England stone walls. Robert M. Thorson
October 17, 2007, REQUEST FOR PHOTOS: A documentary film company named Illusion Films is producing a feature documentary on the book Stone by Stone. The producer is looking for high-quality digital images of Irish Walls, which can be used as backdrop scenes (presumably without extra cost). Contact Robert M Thorson if you are interested in helping. October 17, 2007: COMPILING CONTACT LIST. A student workstudy named Joseph Armington is helping me to compile the list of those who have expressed an interest in the SWI. We will convert this to a list serve, then add the next several hundred people who have contacted us. October 3, 2007: TEACHING ROCK KITS AND STONE WALL MEASURING STICKS: Kevin Thorson and Robert Thorson, manufactured 20 kits to accompany the illustrated children's book Stone Wall Secrets and delivered them to the Windham (CT) school district, which will place them in schools throughout eastern CT. Contact Ann Anderberg at the Windham School District for more information. September 15, 2007 - TAXONOMY UPDATE: Professor Thorson has just posted the descriptive text and the list for a stone wall taxonomy. It's off the Resources, Three books by Professor Thorson, Exploring Stone Walls Links athttp://www.stonewall.uconn.edu/Classification.htm September 14, 2007: SPEAKING SCHEDULE. Talks by Professor Thorson listed under calendar of events. Some are incomplete, with details to follow. September 13, 2007: NEW EMPLOYEE. We have a new work-study employee named Joe Armington who will be updating the List Serve. You will get a newsletter within a month. August 7, 2007: ALMOST BACK. Early September the coordinator and possibly with student help, will be upgrading this site. Please be patient till then. Late July-Early August, 2007: ASSOCIATED PRESS STORY. Writer Stephanie Reitz and Photographer Jessica Hill of the Associated Press filed a feature story on stone wall conservation that was picked up by newspapers throughout the region and beyond. The version for the Hartford Courant was published on Monday July 30, page B5 with the title "A New Goal: Making Sure Stones are Left Unturned," and with a pullout "New England's historic stone walls are disappearing piece by hand-laid piece, but new efforts are underway to preserve them." July 5, 2007. GOOD FENCES. William Hubbell's book Good Fences, A Pictorial History of New England Stone Walls won the gold medal as best hardcover non-fiction for the New England Region from the Independent Publishers Book Awards. Contrats to Bill, who collaborated with Professor Thorson on this book. December 19, 2006: COORDINATOR ON SABBATICAL. This site will not be changed much during the next few months. We are working on a list-serve for all members. Thanks for those who have sent in your names. You aren't missing anything yet. Those of you who have requested a program will have to be patient as well, until the plans for spring are made. November 16, 2006: END OF FALL SEASON FOR STONE WALL PROGRAMS. November 13: .GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION CONFERENCE. Stone walls are being put into GIS (Geographic Information Systems). That, according to many attendees at the annual NEARC (Northeast User's Group for ARC software) at the Mystic Marriott in Groton. October 27, 2006: ILLEGAL REMOVAL OF STONE WALLS? For several years, Prof. Thorson has used the term "strip-mining" to decscribe the excavation of old stone walls for resale as landscaping material. The SWI contacted a local attorney who could find no state regulation against this, presumably because towns regulate earth removal activities at the local level. For an example, she went to the town of Durham where two regulations address the issue (12.05.01. Excavation and Removal Permit: 12.05.01.01. Removal by Permit Only): This attorney's opinion is that the removal of a stone wall without a permit is an illegal form of mining/quarrying/excavation. If you are concerned about a similar situation, check your local town regulations. October 18, 2006: LIST SERVE . We are streamlining our process and soon should have a list serve for members that will make posting more convenient. Keep watching the news till then. October 8, 2006: SUNDAY NEW YORK TIMES OP-ED. Professor Thorson published an op-ed titled Strip Mining History in the Connecticut Section, p. 15. October 4, 2006: PLEASE HELP. The SWI has posted a letter from Ann Tucker Velazco (for Belmiro Rodrigues) requesting information about the oldest stone mason in CT. If you are interested and might be able to help, please contact the SWI. Sept. 28, 2006: BE PATIENT PLEASE. The coordinator, Robert Thorson, finally admits to being overwhelmed by SWI tasks. The inbox is overstuffed, the mailing list needs compiling, and the newsletter awaits help. We will have something to an expanded member list by late October. September 28, 2006: STONE FOUNDATION. The annual meeting of the Stone Foundation will be held September 28-October 1 in Hood River Oregon. Their mission statement is: To celebrate stone and the skillful and creative use of stone;To preserve and perpetuate the time-honored art and craft of stonework, particularly structural stonework, and to encourage and inform the resurgence of interest in it through publications, workshops, seminars, symposia, etc;To research and to communicate the history, the traditions and the culture of stonework;To foster an international community of stonemasons;To serve as a resource by means of which information and experience are shared;To provide training opportunities;To educate stonemasons, both professional and aspiring, architects, contractors and their clients regarding sound practices and acceptable standards of workmanship. September 26, 2006: NEW BOOK. Good Fences: A Pictorial History of New England's Stone Walls, by William Hubbell, has just been released by DownEast Books. This regional overview with pictures from all seasons is a visual catalog of the variety that's out there in the woods and along back roads, waiting to be discovered. September 24, 2006: ROBERT FROST FARM. While conducting a field trip of the stone walls of Robert Frost's Farm in Derry New Hampshire (A National Heritage Site), Robert Thorson noted that the famous poem "Mending Wall" does not describe the wall between his land and that of Napolean Guay with whom he is alleged to have walked the line. Rather, the precariously balanced "balls" and "loaves" he describes are from the wall on the opposite side of the pasture behind the house, where the soil is different. September 21, 2006: EDUCATION. The SWI K-12 curriculum goes national. The Digital Library for Earth Science Education (DLESE) has selected 26 of the web links for the SWI's Educational program to be hosted on a national server for earth science education. Each link contains an introduction written by DLESE staff and which help facilitate navigation. The sites were selected after review by a panel (jury). Congrats to co-investigators David Moss and Wendy Glenn and the teachers who helped us prepare this curriculum. June 27, 2006: BUILDING WALLS. New Section of Web Site Building Stone Walls. For years, people have been asking for my advice on how to build walls. Since I'm not a stone mason, I didn't dare to offer any suggestions. Now I can, thanks to a pamphlet printed by Carl Dill. There are separate sections for Getting Stone, Building Walls, and giving stone that Time Tarnished Look. Click Here for Building Stone Walls. June 27, 2007: End of Spring Lecture Season. The season will close with a teacher's workshop at Yale-Peabody. This web site will be available, but not upgraded until Mid July, 2006. June 10, 2006 (Rain Date June 11): Upcoming talk and walk at Rose Farm. This is an all-afternoon affair, a chance to visit Revolutiionary era walls (and others) at Rochembeau's Fifith Encampment,. See events Calendar under programs. March 27, 2006: The Sunday New York Times (Connecticut Section), dated March 26, 2006, carried a cover story written by Elizabeth Maker about disappearing stone walls . This has been a critical issue for the Stone Wall Initiative since it was formed in early 2002. Her article features the recent action by Harwinton, Connecticut, which passed a law regulating any modifications to stone walls on town roads. We commend the author for her balanced coverage for those who mine walls and those who seek to prevent such mining. We also commend the Town of Harwinton for its action. March 15, 2006: We mailed out 128 packets from the Museum of Natural History including a cover letter and four articles. All went to "Designated Town Official (Selectman/Planner/Mayor/Conservation) in Connecticut towns. March 1, 2006: Here is a good example of stone wall management at the town level. Click Here for Harwinton. http://www.countytimes.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16185407&BRD=2303&PAG=461&dept_id=478976&rfi=6 February 28, 2006: Encouraged by the bold conservation example from Harwinton, CT, I have put together a package of materials for town official and planners regarding stone wall ordinances and regulations. Click here for the cover letter. Contact the SWI for the remainder. February 28, 2006: The national magazine This Old House, has featured the work of the SWI in its March 2006 issue, now available on newsstands. The article on page 24 of the magazine, features four photos and accurately describes the tradeoffs between what they call "salvaged stone" architecture and strip mining of old walls. January 19, 2006: Website was updated and repaired, especially fix broken links under Teacher's Reference (for Stone Wall Secrets). If you've had trouble with this in the past, it is not fixed, and loaded with paintings by Gus Moore. Please let me know when you find broken links. January 19, 2006: Member's Gallery. We are building a page to host photos and comments sent to me by members. Check it out. December, 2006: Courtesy of Alex Babbidge, the SWI received the full text of a speech given in December 1971 by Homer Babbidge, the beloved former president of the University of Connecticut. His views were surprisingly similar to those published more than thirty years later by Professor Thorson, in Stone by Stone, 2002. Friday, December 9, 2005 : The New York Times carried an Associated Press Story about what is arguably the most important buried stone wall in the northeast. While digging a subway tunnel, workers encountered an old, square-cut stone wall corner ten feet below the surface at Battery Park, on Manhattan Island. At the moment, the best guess is that it was built as part of a fort for harbor defense, perhaps by the Dutch EAst India Co, which founded New Amsterdam in 1623. The story was first noticed by us on Friday, December 9, 2005. Link to News Archive
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