Howdey Forum,

I found these hiking deep in the woods on a game trail today. They were near each other but they were not piled by any natural means. They were around the perimeter of a swamp.

What to you think, the work of Sasquatch or man? Is it common for Bigfoot to do such things? If So, why?

David Thomas King

Pic 1

Here's pic 2

Here's Pic 3

In the first and third picture, is that a piece of wood jutting up from the pile of stones?

Fishbone,

That's all rock...no wood in any of these piles....

I Thought them very strange... What do you think?

David Thomas King

Oh, and to answer your question, there is one instance in which a witness watched sasquatch stack stones. In 1967 in the Mount Hood National Forest, Glen Thomas watched three sasquatch that were lifting stones and stacking them while looking for ground squirrels and eating them. He described them as a male, female and juvenile.

They look like Cairns to me. What people use to mark trails. Just my opinion and trying to rule out humans first?? You said "Game Trail" why do you think it's Game and not hunters/game trail?

Cut4sign

Whoops, got ahead of myself.

To be honest with you, I'd be more inclined to consider them as human made versus sasquatch. The reason I say that is because for one thing, Native Americans used rock piles to communicate many different things and that could be their origin. Or, it could be that they're some type of property marker that used to denote a boundary. Old "metes and bounds" legal descriptions have been known to reference things like that.

The rule of thumb as I know it is, if you didn't see a sasquatch make it, you're better off not trying to attribute it to sasquatch.

That's interesting Fishbone,

Maybe we've got somthing significant going on in this particular area of forest.

I'll keep the forum posted.

Anyone else have any input?

D.T.K.

I've seen these many times, mostly in Onterio. The word I get is that the natives make these for a variety of reasons. I've even heard of these way back in the bush. I'm not saying it isn't possible that a Sas would make these, I'm just relating my experience.

I hear you guys,

Good rule to follow.

What I meant by game trail was a small deer trail which opend up into like "An animal highway" for moose and other large creature. Very far off the beaten track. I can post more pictures to help explain what it looks like.

David Thomas King

Post away, DTK. I never get tired of seeing other parts of the country.

Here's one view of the game trail

Here's another view of the game trail

Here's One more of the game trail

Here's one of the swamp it goes through...

Interesting, notice each pile has a long shaft-like rock that sticks up, with other rocks piled around to hold it up. I'd agree with the statements of trail markers though by human hands.

I concur with Fish on this... unless you see Bigfoot actually stacking the stone they can only remain but an interesting find.

What was it Dr. Venkman said, very sarcastically, near the beginning of Ghostbusters, after the three scientists find a stack of books on the floor in the New York Public Library?The stacking of rocks must remain a mystery, much as the twisting and breaking of trees, until a Bigfoot is seen doing it in the woods.

My "guess" and mind you its only a "guess" at that, but I lean towards a boundary marker as well. I worked for a land-surveyor for a few years in a pretty rural part of Eastern Wa. and we found a lot of these "cairns" in some very surprising places. Found quite a few in grasslands and open areas that had "no rocks" to speak of in the area.

Always hated rooting around in them to try and confirm what they were...figured it'd be my to find the P.O'd rattler first

Also, I've noticed more of them in fairly common hiking areas...Pacific Crest Trail, Indian Heaven, Mt. Rainier come to mind. Have watched people just stop on the trail around Panorama Point on Rainier and spend 15min to a half hour or so stacking scree...then just move along the way. Never quite grasped what made them just stop so abruptly and do this....never felt the need myself, and to be honest felt the only deposit I was in danger of leaving behind were my lungs after I hacked them up

In fact gotta small stack of 'em in my drive-way from when we moved in here. We were waiting for another load to show up and while we did, a buddy of mine started stacking rocks. I asked what he was doing, and he told me " I really don't know, its just something I do when I get bored out on the trail."

Adamsclimber,

That post reminded me of a show I caught on History Channel a few months ago about a place in Montana known as Buffalo Jump.

The reason for its name is due to the practice of the local Indians to hunt buffalo by "herding" them over a 125 foot cliff.

Anyway, one of the things noted in the show were small rock cairns positioned strategically on the open plain. The Indians would tie feathers and rawhide thongs to sticks, which were held up by the cairns, in order to frighten the buffalo into stampeding in the correct direction. A wildlife biologist that was interviewed for the show stated that herd animals such as buffalo will react to any movement and perceive it as a threat when they are "running scared". The Indians knew this and exploited this fact thereby allowing a minimal number of them to actually chase the herd.

From the archeological evidence that's been dug up from the site, the plan apparently worked extremely well.

Anyway, I know that has nothing to do with rocks stacked up in a swamp in Massachusetts but I found it interesting and figured it fit into the thread in some small way.

That's really interesting Fish. I've heard of the cliff technique, but never even woulda considered the use of "navigational beacons" to herd them along the "channel" per se.

A number of years ago, we used the wave cloth or rag at the antelope style....found it pretty much made them drop into over drive and kick in the nitrous...guess those age-old techniques may have been over-used a bit in some cases

In alot of the ones we found there were often signs that they had been there for quite a while, let's say "turn-of-the-century" 1880-1920 for sake of argument. Curious, though I remember being told that there were certain "guide-lines" for these markers and I know the fellow I was working with knew them a heck of a lot better than I.

Anyone know of this, because we could get to two or three of these things after hiking down to a supposed section corner and he would point out the one to check.
I'm sure it was probably from working off his rough-calculations. (Personally, I felt it was differentiated by how far behind in the pay-period he was and its likely "rattler content", but could never prove it ) And as far as I could tell the rocks had to hauled from someplace to make these things, and they were generally fairly large. Using my rusty steel trap mind and poor recollection, in most cases I would say 3-4 feet wide and roughly 2-2 1/2 high.

So possibly, these are old claims or corner marks in Mass? We ran into one or two instances where the "marker" had been moved by one neighbor or another at some point in time, so could these be a case of putting it in a more friendly place for the mover? Or such old survey's that "close was good enough?"

FWIW...still just guessing here

Edited: yup, still can't type worth a darn

This of course is done by hikers. Kind of a common thing on the trails for each hiker to place one rock and move on and another comes along and adds his/her rock. The on the top of the pile is mine that I added before taking the pic and moving on.

Of course, ones off the trail, beaten path, or out away from where anyone rarely travels are always the good ones to check out.

JW agreed whole heartedly that those are the standard style "marker" or "cairn" I've seen on trails. The one's that I remember from say Rainier, primarily, these folks would stop at roughly 8,000 ft and "sculpt" for lack of a better term, there own "personal monument". Which I think is pretty cool in its own right, just no idea why they hit this certain stretch of trail and decide to do this....hypoxia, dehydration...just never made sense to me. 8,000 would seem low for that kind of thing, but if your a low-lander like me...its a long way up, gets longer every year ....maybe its the human version of monkey-see, monkey-do (no pun, or what the hey throw it in there if ya' really gotta)

Now at least here in the Gorge and Coastal Wa you can see things like rocks way in the back 40 or 400 for that matter...you can still find plenty of stumps in what appears to be fairly old timber where the notches they cut for their "spring boards" are visible...and somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but most of the "spring-board" stuff was gone by the late 30's-early 40's.

And by no means trying to start anything...just amazes me with where I'm fortunate enough to live that you can think you're out "where no one has gone" and see a marker from an old logging outfit or something along those lines to remind you...."well, you were wrong"...happens to me more than I care to admit.

There again, no expertise at this end, just a lotta years as a "woods bum"...even got paid on occasion to do it, pay seemed secondary to me at the time, but the missus seemed to think it was important

not to get all religious on you, but people who follow the earth/nature religions are known to stack rocks like that too, usually to honor the earth or local gods and goddesses. sometimes with an added crystal on top, or a plant, or feather. because the stacks you posted have a stone sticking up thru the middle i'm thinking they were made in honor of a god, rather than a goddess....you get the picture...phallic symbol and all....

but thats just my take on it
gael

Interesting take, Gael.

I also have always heard of them as a Native American thing to do. It was sort of a sign post the way I under stood it anyway.
I have read that in remote spots you can still find piles some times. In one book I read says that a lot of people still adds a rock to the pile for good luck when they find one. I would almost bet on it being something like that if it looked fresh. Someone started it and when ever they go by it they add another stone and others could even from time to time when they see it. Sort of saying hello you know.

Another thing it reminded me of last night was something my dad told me about on one of the forest fires he was working. There were cairns there, and the local Native Americans told him they are sacred, they should not be moved, that they had some ceremonial value. He told his crew if anybody touched those stones they would be fired.

Here are just a few of my thoughts.

Native Americans throughout the US used stacked rocks to mark springs, trails, important camps/villages, etc. They look very much like these photos. Native Americans aren't still making these stacks though, cause they aren't using the landscape the same, so unless there is evidence that these are old (for example, have heavy moss, rocks are settled into each other, filled with debris etc.), the rock stacks are likely "recent" in time and not associated with prehistoric Native American activity.

I would most likely consider these to be mining or other claim markers, property boundary line markers, or modern trail markers. What else did you see? Any trees with notches cut into them (called blazes)? Are the markers all in a line on the same side of the trail? Any other artifacts or sites (prehistoric or historic) in the area??

I would assume the rock piles were of human origin.

When I was in Peru, I would see stacks of rocks everywhere we went. They would vary in size from just a few small rocks piled on top of each other to stacks several feet high.

When I asked my interpreters what they meant I was told that the natives will make the stacks for reason varying from commemorating a person or event they had thought of to marking the place where they had experienced a divine insight or revelation or were seeking to honor a god. Often they would stack rocks while taking a break from walking and were apparently just entertaining themselves. Sometimes you got the impression it was a national pastime.

Must be something ingrained in human behaviour to stack things - look at all the pyramids all over the world!

A couple of DTK's pictures sort of remind me of abandoned campfires. Perhaps the rocks were used as a perimeter to a fire, and then others were stacked in the middle and on top as an added measure of safety after the fire was extinquished.

here's more rock stacking discussion if ya need it: http://www.bigfootforums.com/index.php?showtopic=2217&st=40

About 75 feet from the photo of the twisted tree I found (which was published a couple of years back in a Track Record), there was a neat pile about 16 inches high of about ten flat rocks like the ones in the picture in this thread. I decided it was unlikely a Bigfoot had made such a neat, tall pile, so I didn't submit it to TR--and now I'm glad I didn't.

i lean toward human origin for these rock piles. the tenet mentioned earlier of considering it human in origin unless you actually see a BF stacking them is pretty valid. although this might be a pretty remote area, it may not ALWAYS have been remote, and the game trail might have evolved out of a human trail to which the piles might have been cairns.

as a friend of mine and i discussed recently, there is a tendency to see BF as the origin of anything you cant explain in the woods if BF is what you are looking for (consider witch hunts and conspiracy theories-- even miniscule things somehow gain importance).

maybe they're BF in origin, maybe not. file it away for future reference, just in case.