Description

There once may have been 250000 miles of stone walls in Americas Northeast stretching farther than the distance to the moon And even though most are crumbling today they contain a magnificent scientific and cultural story

Stone walls tell nothing less than the story of how New England was formed and in Robert Thorsons hands they live and breathe Millions of years ago New Englands stones belonged to ancient mountains thrust up by prehistoric collisions between continents Buried again over centuries by forest and soil buildup the stones gradually worked their way back to the surface only to become impediments to the farmers cultivating the land in the eighteenth century who piled them into linear landfills a place to hold the stones Usually the biggest investment on a farm often exceeding that of the land and buildings combined stone walls became a defining element of the Northeasts landscape and a symbol of the shift to an agricultural economy

Stone walls layer time like Russian dolls their smallest elements reflecting the longest spans and Thorson urges us to study them for each stone has its own story Linking geological history to the early American experience Stone by Stone presents a fascinating picture of the land the Pilgrims settled allowing us to see and understand it with new eyes