sskrab
Stone wall on southeastern side of McCauther
The most likely explanation for a wall of this kind would relate to use by late 1700s/early 1800s farmers who immigrated from Scotland and Ireland. The terrain in this part of Georgia is not unlike the Scottish Highlands, and the immigrants farmed it the same way--living down in the valleys near water and clearing pastures along the ridgetops to graze their livestock. The stone would define the cleared pasture area.
The only thing is, this wall encloses an awfully small pasture area. It would make a bizarre property border for the same reason. It is definitely not civil war related (no fighting ever occurred this far east in North Georgia). It sits in the center of the ridge and is pretty accurately represented on the archaeology map slide as a generally oblong shape. It's a peculiar size and shape for a pasture or even crop field given the rest of the topography of the ridge. I can't come up with any reason a logging company would create such a wall either (old logging roads run all over the ridges in this area, but they are at least 75-100 years from last use).
Less likely but still a possibility is that the wall is related to Native American ceremonial functions. The only artifact recovered to date is Native American - a crude quartz hand ax. However, it is clearly associated with utilitarian hunting use, not ceremonial activities, so it really cannot be linked definitively to the walls. Test pits have yet to yield any other clues as to the origins of the walls. Whoever was responsible for their construction had to have had some worthwhile purpose--the sheer size/weight of the individual stones are significant so it would not be a project easily completed in rough terrain. There is a noticeable pattern of old growth trees only remaining below the line of the wall on the southeastern side of the ridge, suggesting that the area inside the wall (the summit) was completely cleared. This could fit with either (or both) recent historical European livestock practices or with Native American ceremonial uses.
Then there are always the Spanish Fort theories....the ancient astronomical alignment with the Etowah Mound Complex/Petroglyphs & Pottery theories (that I don't buy, personally)....and even a claim about pre-Columbian Welsh Vikings in Alabama :) It all just depends on what you want to believe: there is no shortage of ideas about the origins of the strange stone walls on the mountaintops in this part of Georgia:
www.valdostamuseum.org/hamsmith/EtowahMounds.html#laddqmt
Stone wall on southeastern side of McCauther
The most likely explanation for a wall of this kind would relate to use by late 1700s/early 1800s farmers who immigrated from Scotland and Ireland. The terrain in this part of Georgia is not unlike the Scottish Highlands, and the immigrants farmed it the same way--living down in the valleys near water and clearing pastures along the ridgetops to graze their livestock. The stone would define the cleared pasture area.
The only thing is, this wall encloses an awfully small pasture area. It would make a bizarre property border for the same reason. It is definitely not civil war related (no fighting ever occurred this far east in North Georgia). It sits in the center of the ridge and is pretty accurately represented on the archaeology map slide as a generally oblong shape. It's a peculiar size and shape for a pasture or even crop field given the rest of the topography of the ridge. I can't come up with any reason a logging company would create such a wall either (old logging roads run all over the ridges in this area, but they are at least 75-100 years from last use).
Less likely but still a possibility is that the wall is related to Native American ceremonial functions. The only artifact recovered to date is Native American - a crude quartz hand ax. However, it is clearly associated with utilitarian hunting use, not ceremonial activities, so it really cannot be linked definitively to the walls. Test pits have yet to yield any other clues as to the origins of the walls. Whoever was responsible for their construction had to have had some worthwhile purpose--the sheer size/weight of the individual stones are significant so it would not be a project easily completed in rough terrain. There is a noticeable pattern of old growth trees only remaining below the line of the wall on the southeastern side of the ridge, suggesting that the area inside the wall (the summit) was completely cleared. This could fit with either (or both) recent historical European livestock practices or with Native American ceremonial uses.
Then there are always the Spanish Fort theories....the ancient astronomical alignment with the Etowah Mound Complex/Petroglyphs & Pottery theories (that I don't buy, personally)....and even a claim about pre-Columbian Welsh Vikings in Alabama :) It all just depends on what you want to believe: there is no shortage of ideas about the origins of the strange stone walls on the mountaintops in this part of Georgia:
www.valdostamuseum.org/hamsmith/EtowahMounds.html#laddqmt