What the heck? Thieves are stealing New Englands stone walls

[cali]

WWRFS? (What would Robert Frost say?)

Heard this on NPR this morning and then did a brief search. According to NPR the stones from NE's old stone walls are so in demand they're being sold in places like Craig's list. Many of those walls date back to the early 1800s.

I found this piece from August. Clearly some people have too much money to throw around.

http://amykane.typepad.com/northhampton/2007/08/stealing-histor.html

[zabet]

1. In reading the article...

I have to question the laws on
this. I view it akin to someone
taking down sections of my pasture
fence that border the road. Surely
there is legal recourse for this theft.
The fences/stone walls belong to the
property owner I would think.
Theft of what are considered historically
significant architecture salvage items
is and has been far more rampant than
the average person would think. Let
an old house stay empty too long around
here and mantels, doors, fixtures and
lightening rods are the first things to
dissappear (unless there is copper piping
under the house-it gets stolen quickly too).

[Raven]

2. In NH, a lot of property is bounded by stone walls. Early farmers

and sheep herders demarked their property that way. The used horses to pull them and a strange piece of equipment to lay them in the wall. The stones came out of the fields that the farmers cleared, an early recycling effort! I have miles of stone walls that form the boundaries of my land here. These are ancient, weathered stones which you just can't buy. They are beautiful and I think that's why they are so in demand that people will steal them. What is even more unique is the way that these stones have been placed...very carefully to fit perfectly. This is also what gives the stone walls their beauty. Building stone walls is a lost art, what a shame that what we have is being dismantled or stolen.

[Atman]

4. I live in CT...stone walls everywhere. Like NH, lots of granite underground.

Many if not most of the stone walls are the result of, as you alluded to, "recycling" efforts. You can't throw them away, but anyone who has worked on land up here knows they grow like weeds. Almost literally...if you clear a piece of land, a new crop of stones pops to the surface next spring. I have a crummy little parcel in the CT woods and did the same thing to a lesser scale; I used them to make fancy garden borders.

Everywhere you go up here the property is lined with stone walls, even when that property appears to be in the middle of nowhere. Near our property there are even old 1700's farm house foundations, just big holes in the ground lined with huge stones. The state actually sponsors walking tours out to see them every fall. A couple of them even have big "refrigerators" made out of giant, two-foot thick stones that keep cool all year below the ground level. It's pretty neat. I find it weird the stones are considered so in demand when they grow like weeds anyway. Why dismantle a wall? Just bend over and they'll be half a dozen of 'em at your feet.

.

[cali]

6. I love CT's stone walls

I grew up there. Anyway, I suppose the reason people are stealing and dismantiing old stone walls, is for the cache value.

[bigscott]

12. I also live in CT

and 3 of 4 sides of my property are stone walls - i love them and keep the weeds off them - it is a great old look and one that seems to be unique to the northeast. I know my brother in Houston loves them and comments on the walls everytime he comes home!

[H2O Man]

8. Ox & stone sleds

were used in upstate NY. It's an art. There are different styles; my favorite is that of the Scotch-Irish, which have a slight "zig-zag" over rough terrain.

[MADem]

3. It's wrong. May they have shit karma. nt

[Olney Blue]

5. This is bad. Those walls are a historical treasure.

[H2O Man]

7. It's been going on

for years. The stone business is a booming industry. Many property owners are selling old stone walls to people who pack them on pallets (3' by 3' by 4') and sending them by the truckload to the cities. Trucks carry a large number of the pallets, which sell for from anywhere from $50 to $100 or more.

Just as with the lumber industry, there are people who will ignore property lines and steal the resources from unsuspecting property owners. My neighbors and I found such charmers on our properties a few years ago. Long story short, we had to file in NYS Supreme Court to keep the weasals off our land, and we were not able to recover the damages done to our land. I had some damage, but one of my neighbors had far more. I've got the photos of damaged stone walls, which were made circa 1794-1805, and the trees that were cut down.

It was strange: I used to build stone walls to relax after work. One day I heard a bulldozer on my land. I went back, and found these shits making a road-way on my property. There was a brief confrontation, as they told me that I couldn't stop them. That is the mentality I was dealing with.

[trumad]

9. So what happened?

[H2O Man]

10. It wasn't a fair match.

There were only two of them, and they were only armed with a shovel and a crow bar.

[opihimoimoi]

23. History shows peeps raided the Pyramids, the Collusium, etc etc

Peeps do what they have to do for their mortages, beer, wine, drugs, rent, food, gas, etc....

Coming up...Wall Cams to ID those fuckers for prosecutions...

[Breeze54]

24. Wall Cams are all ready in place

on some properties. ;)

[cali]

11. wow. I had no idea.

Haven't heard anything about it in Northern Vermont. Your story about confronting these creeps is quite disturbing. How the hell could they have the nerve to tell you that you couldn't stop them from trespassing (with heavy machinery, at that) on your land??

[H2O Man]

15. They were saying

that I could not stop them from creating a "right of way" across my property. They attempted to bluff me by saying they had spoken with their attorney, and were within their rights. They also claimed there was a old dirt road/right of way in the early deeds.

By chance, one of my hobbies is studying "local history." I have files of copies of all the local deeds going back to the Revolutionary War, when this area was the "western front." I can show exactly where the old roads went, including all of the old "farm roads." I have studied this area quite closely, and I sure as heck know exactly what is in my deed, and in my neighbors'. They were full of shit.

I wrote the part of my neighbors and my case that went into the court case. The problem was that to recover, we needed to stand in a long line, as nuymerous other people had judgements against these two. Shocking, eh?

Another neighbor has since had trees and "cap" stones stolen. People use the cap stones for building a patio. Two years ago in Delaware County, a retired NYC police officer was arrested for stealing cap stones from some beautiful walls in a couple villages. That takes a lot of nerve.

[Breeze54]

13. This isn't new. There were stone walls being ripped off in MA too.

If I remember correctly, a local farm had sections ripped off.
I remember seeing the yellow tape and there are now warning signs.

Stone “rustling” is on the rise

http://www.brookfieldcitizen.com/current/news/0509hotrocks.html

By Sarah Heller

September 2005

Have you heard about this new human assault on the environment? It seems that people want old New England stone walls and will even resort to stealing to get them. But how seriously does the Massachusetts state legislature take this? Not very, to read the law on the books.*

The General Laws of Massachusetts, Chapter 266: Section 105 states (http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/266-106.htm) “Stone walls or fences; unauthorized removal. Whoever willfully and without right pulls down or removes any portion of a stone wall or fence which is erected or maintained for the purpose of enclosing land shall be punished by a fine of not more than ten dollars. Natural resource officers and deputy natural resource officers of the office of the secretary of the executive office of environmental affairs may arrest without a warrant any person found violating this section.”



Ten dollars!? That seems a strangely paltry sum for tearing down a beautiful old stone wall that probably took months to build and years to age. But then the whole subject of stealing stone walls is a bit strange. What would drive a person to do such a thing? And can you really steal a stone wall? Actually, on that score, the General Law got it right. It refers to “removal” not “theft”. Because can a stone wall really be stolen? It is so much a part of the place where it was built. The contour of the land, the way the rocks are balanced and have settled on one another, all are of a piece. It would be impossible to recreate that elsewhere. You can destroy the wall, but doesn’t “theft” imply that the thief is left with something of value?

Rhode Island apparently thinks so. They passed a law in 2001 relating to “the theft of historic stone walls.” Their punishment is to be “civilly liable to the property owner for the cost of replacing said stones and any other compensable damages related to said larceny.” But that begs the question of how do you determine a replacement cost for something that is essentially irreplaceable?

“Stone walls are so much more than boundary markers, abandoned fence lines, elongate rock piles, architectural ornaments, and sources of poetic inspiration. They are the signatures of rural New England.
They are landforms. They are icons. The landscape wouldn't be the same without them,” Professor Thorson writes on his website.

http://www.primaryresearch.org/stonewalls/history.php">History of New England Stone Walls


According to Allport, by the early 1650’s the colony of Massachusetts had already enacted legislation mandating farmers to build fences to a minimum height to separate their livestock from other farmers’ crops or a neighbor’s prized livestock. Most towns in colonial Massachusetts had fence requirements between four and five feet.

more...

[LeftCoast]

14. That's pretty messed up

It's not like there's a shortage of rocks.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

16. wow I'm glad I live in NYC watershed in the Catskill Mtns. and my stone walls are safe....

hell we can't even move a stone or cut a tree without a hefty 5K fine. The DEC patrols constantly, Thank god.

[Maine-i-acs]

17. The McMansioneers buy them, illegally if they must.

The thieves can spray-paint numbers on them sometimes to allow them to be rebuilt in the same order. The McMansioneers want something to make their Mcmansions stand out from the other 40 identical houses on their cul-de-sac. Flush with cash, they troll around for these antique beauties.

In Maine we have them all over but woe be to the trespasser who tries to pilfer s few away! Property owner's rights are pretty strong up here, and you can pretty much smack around anyone messing with your land.

I've seen stone walls from long-abandoned pastures that are now completely reforested. Quite a sight. I have great pics of them but never got the hang of posting pics here.

[zippy890]

18. the stone walls are beautiful

and as ancient as can get in America since the European colonization started.

As someone noted above they were carefully made, each stone taken from the surrounding land, and set just so it fits over, between the next ones. These walls still stand because they were so well constructed.

I walk in the woods a lot in rural Mass.,and always marvel at these walls and think back 300 years ago and picture the hard grueling work that went into making them. They are beautiful and part of our history.

[TwilightGardener]

19. How sad--hate to see pieces of our history stolen or auctioned away.

A fence torn down and rebuilt elsewhere stops being a historic structure--just a pile of stones in its new location.

[JerseygirlCT]

20. Honest to goodness, we grow stones up here

You can't dig 4 inches without hitting rock.

So take the stuff in my lawn, thanks, and leave those beautiful (and hard to make) walls alone!

[MuseRider]

21. Lots of old stone walls here in Kansas too

but there used to be more of them. Now I really only see them when I am out in the boonies and they are usually in pretty good shape, for now that is.

Same here as in CT, we grow them. Probably not as big as CT but they do seem to crop up every year.

They are beautiful when you can find them intact. I hate to hear this. It seems I see people all over these days taking rocks from the sides of roads and they keep digging up my wildflowers as if they will be able to replant them and have them grow.

[SoCalDem]

22. Have you PRICED rocks at Home Depot?

:rofl:


to be serious, though.. when we had Labs who tried to dig under the fence, we went to the desert with a pick up truck and got "free rocks" to line the inside of the fence..

[HughMoran]

25. Hmmm, no desert 'round here

NH has lots of stones, but most all of the land is private.

[SoCalDem]

26. We were so scared of turning one over & finding a rattlesnake

but luckily all we found were rocks:) and we did not disturb any cacti or trespass..and there were no signs telling us to keep away from the rocks :)

[HughMoran]

27. Lol - you're lucky

I usually can go off into my own woods and find stones to repair or add to my wall, but they are heavy :D Glad I have a trailer for my lawn tractor!

[tuckessee]

28. Happens in Kentucky as well.

The rough stone dry stack fences generally called "slave walls" are occasionally stolen.

One near me was stolen a year ago and the owner has put up signs offering a large reward but so far has had no takers.

The stone wall are often points of contention between road builders/developers and preservationists.

[H2O Man]

29. "Who Owns Our Past?"

National Geographic; March 1989; pages 376-393.

There was an interesting article on the events at the Slack Farm in Kentucky. Chief Paul Waterman and Tadodaho Leon Shenandoah did the reburials. In one spot, the grave-robbers made a pile of jaw bones. It was so terrible that it actually helped get the federal burial protection and repatriation law passed.