• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

America's Stonehenge (Salem, New Hampshire)

MrRING

Android Futureman
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Messages
6,053
I can't believe I had never heard of this before, and I could find any threads devoted to it here (if this is merged and you are reading this, know that I was wrong! :) )

Anyhow, this is a European-style megalithic site just outside Boston. It seems very interesting, and since it doesn't really fit the style of Native American mound building, is it possible proof that the megalitich culture that created Stonehenge was more widespread that originally thought? From the Unmuseum:
About 40 miles north of the city of Boston, and about 25 miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean, is what appears to be the greatest, and perhaps oldest, megalithic enigma of North America. Mystery Hill, also known as "America's Stonehenge", is a site that has puzzled archaeologists for almost a century.

Running across the 30 acres of hillside are a series of low walls, cave-like primitive buildings, and tunnels that are spread about with, according to one archaeologist, "gigantic confusion and childish disorder, deep cunning and rude naively."

While the hill is compared to the English Stonehenge circle, it is, at first glance, physically quite different. Stonehenge is located on a plain, not a hill, and is arranged neatly as a series of concentric circles, horseshoes and squares. Mystery Hill seems a jumble in comparison. The stones involved in Stonehenge are larger, up to 45 tons. The stones at Mystery Hill are smaller (the largest is about 11 tons) and the construction less intricate.

http://www.unmuseum.org/mysthill.htm

And the official site: http://www.stonehengeusa.com/
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I'm 20 minutes north, by car, and sadly I've never been, although my husband and son have and they were very intrigued by it. Keep meaning to get myself down there; I will very soon...

Part of it's intrigue is it doesn't match the patterns (building or otherwise) of the inhabitants that are commonly believed to have been in the area at the time, but those cultures whose patterns it matches were "supposedly" no where near here...


I think "we" should just stop thinking "we" know so much! :D
 
This is a fairly common thing for magazines like *Fate* to cover in America. Part of the problem is that it's been part of a working farm for as far back as records go, and some features that have had elaborate fantasies spun about them (by city dwellers) have turned out to be perfectly mundane farm features; other features have been modified, cannibalized, or "restored" by property owners; in short, the stratigraphy is a mess. I don't know of any definitive work on the subject, sorry.
 
I searched and found a fairly (to my memory) accurate history of the site. Unfortunately, I don't have any of the local history books on this site handy, and none that are solely devoted to the subject...

http://www.crystalinks.com/mysteryhill.html

I'm sure there are plenty of others, and I have not checked out the main site, but this link in particular is fairly accurate (as far as history, quite different from speculation).

IMO, *Fate* is so much fluff & puff and not much substance....

Sadly, the site definitely has had interference from humans and the progression :rolleyes: of our society, as have countless others, but that does not undermine it's potential significance!
 
superglu said:
IMO, *Fate* is so much fluff & puff and not much substance....

Sadly, the site definitely has had interference from humans and the progression :rolleyes: of our society, as have countless others, but that does not undermine it's potential significance!

You mean, from people during the historical period, right? Obviously the features were constructed by humans; aliens are hardly ever mentioned in this context, and Wendigo doesn't build structures.

Substance is as substance does. I skip most of the freelanced articles, but the staff columns are surprisingly good and the readers-write-in columns keep you abreast of the way ordinary people's minds work (or fail to work) on Fortean topics. Since one of the things that interests me is the process by which people decide how to interpret their experience and what sorts of evidence compels their belief in different situations, *Fate* is well worth the price. Also, they got the article by the guy who used sketch maps dating from the day of the Paterson Bigfoot film to create a 3D model of the site in order to assist in the interpretation of the film, and nobody else did. I still have no opinion on the authenticity of the film, but the dollhouse/model railroad enthusiast in me loves it.

Anyway, back on topic; a really good archeological investigation of Mystery Hill is certainly called for, and this is precisely the type of site that will never get it. Archeologists are perennially in need of grant money and plagued by flakes who think they should include Atlantis in their timelines; not to mention the ingrained conservatism which has, time and again, resisted pushing the clock back on human arrival until overwhelmed by weight of evidence. I am not dissing archeologists here, but when (as I have over the last 8 years) you read the primary documents and witness the way in which logical possibilities are treated as if they were fringe ideas, and the dramatic finds that are necessary to precipitate paradign shifts that the lay reader can see coming from miles away, it's striking how fear of being quoted out of context restrains them. Coming anywhere near a North American site that has a "sacrificial altar" is terrifying for them; and who can blame them? All they need is some rival for the scarce dig dollars dropping hints to the grant committees that so-and-so has a bee in his bonnet about "that so-called druid site."
 
Peni said:
You mean, from people during the historical period, right? Obviously the features were constructed by humans; aliens are hardly ever mentioned in this context, and Wendigo doesn't build structures.

Oops, yup, I should have been more specific! Unless it's a spectacular example of natural coincidence, it was obviously constructed by humans (as far as our current knowledge goes, anyhow, but nothing is ever certain!). It's been the last 200 years of shuffling blocks around and surmising that interferes with any attempted investigation. Thanks for catching that.

(As far as Fate goes, I won't deny that some of it has value. Personally, it takes me less than an hour to read it from cover to cover and it feels like the literary equivalent of a candy bar to me. Just my opinion, no offence intended!)

And the great thing about scientific research is that every decade or so, another truth is shaken by new discoveries!

We have more to learn than we think we do.
:p
 
I think one of my first links says something about the fact that any original evidence would have been destroyed by the owners in the 1930's.... Intersting points all.
 
The 'America's Stonehenge' site in Salem, New Hampshire, was vandalized in 2019. Someone using a power tool carved (get this ... ) QAnon related graffiti and another inscription into a stone. A suspect has now been identified and arrested after a long investigation.
Man accused of QAnon vandalism at ‘America’s Stonehenge’

Police have made an arrest following a 15-month-long investigation into vandalism at a group of rock configurations in New Hampshire called “America’s Stonehenge.”

Mark Russo, 51, of Swedesboro, New Jersey, has been charged with one count of felony criminal mischief, accused of defacing the stone in Salem in September 2019. A lawyer entered a not guilty plea on his behalf ...

Police said the rock tablet appeared to have been damaged by a power tool. It was carved with “WWG1WGA” and “IAMMARK.” Police said the first stands for “Where We Go One, We Go All,” a motto affiliated with the QAnon conspiracy theory. ...

Police arrested Russo after finding images of the stone and Russo online and linking to him an “iammark” Twitter account with a reference to “a few improvements” made to the site. ...

Bail was set at $3,000 cash for Russo, who is scheduled for a hearing on April 21. ...

FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/arrests-salem-vandalism-new-jersey-2ccf5ee139dfe30f923ed539388aa894
 
Last edited:
Back
Top