# Piles of granite rocks - several piles



## 95g atl (Mar 17, 2014)

I found these rocks with my son while roaming our lease in Warren County.  Small creek was closeby and land was sloped and never appeared to be farmed based on the hills.  No trails or old roads nearby either.

Though I only have ONE pic, there were several piles around (pic being the largest pile) scattered around an area maybe 50ft x 50 ft.  A good portion of the  rocks seem to be square shaped.

Spent part of yesterday evening searching the net on what these could be with many "theories".  Indians did it, old settlers moved for farming, and aliens....haha, ok the last one some suggested probably in humor.

Anyone know for certain what this is.....and not guessing?


----------



## ALwoodsman (Mar 17, 2014)

I would like to know too.  Over the years I have seen several of these.  Some of them I am sure were piled up to clear for farms and such.  Some that I have found were in strange areas or odd configurations.


----------



## 95g atl (Mar 17, 2014)

From my research there appears to be rocks like these found all over the south and up into the mid-atlantic states.  

On a similar topic, I have found small granite rock headstones scattered in an area of Warren County and Talioferro county.  One of the headstones was engraved showing a death date of 1794.  But these don't look like headstones piled up.

Here's something from UGA: http://shapiro.anthro.uga.edu/Archaeology/images/PDFs/uga_lab_series_17.pdf
more misc:
http://rockpiles.blogspot.com/2007/07/quartz-rock-piles-from-westcentral.html
http://thesga.org/wp-content/uploads/1990/11/gresham_historic_rock_piling.pdf


----------



## NCHillbilly (Mar 17, 2014)

Around here, almost every old farm field has big piles of rocks around it where they have been taken out of the field and dumped in piles over the years. Unfortunately, I got to add to them the whole time I was growing up. We'd pick rocks out of the fields every year at plowing time. You can still find these all over, even a long ways back in the woods, where old fields have been taken over by second-growth woods. A lot of people make good money selling those old rock piles off their land for building stone.

That could also be the remains of an old chimney or foundation of a building.


----------



## 95g atl (Mar 17, 2014)

NCHillbilly said:


> Around here, almost every old farm field has big piles of rocks around it where they have been taken out of the field and dumped in piles over the years. Unfortunately, I got to add to them the whole time I was growing up. We'd pick rocks out of the fields every year at plowing time. You can still find these all over, even a long ways back in the woods, where old fields have been taken over by second-growth woods. A lot of people make good money selling those old rock piles off their land for building stone.
> 
> That could also be the remains of an old chimney or foundation of a building.



Plowing and removing rocks, also the old foundation is what I initially thought.  however, more research points to Indian stuff.  

Now that I think about it, I have seen many more piles of rocks on this land, just not as large as this pile.  Will get more pics in the future and update.


----------



## drippin' rock (Mar 17, 2014)

Farmers piled these rocks while plowing fields.


----------



## Milkman (Mar 17, 2014)

Do any of them have evidence of quarry boring, sawing, or blasting? Are there any granite quarries in the area?

If not, my bet would be the native folks here before the European invaders (us) came along put them there.  The fact that many of them are smooth sided shows they were gathered for some reason.  Not as grand as the eagle and hawk formations over in Putnam but they very well may have had a ceremonial meaning.


----------



## trad bow (Mar 17, 2014)

Those definitely show signs of being quarried. I know of several home sites here in Putnam on NF land that have stones 2'x3'x4' that were quarried around here. There are four ceremonial sites here in Putnam that have wildlife as the formations. Along with  Rock Eagle and Rock Hawk is one known as the Presley site and one known as the Rock Snake. The Presley site has been ransacked over the years and no one can determine what the formation was originally like. Of course I am getting a little age on me and the last two may be reversed in my description but they are on private land and cannot be access. These are the only known and recognized formations east of the Mississippi. Well worth looking at the Hawk and Eagle if you are passing thru area. They are on separate sides of the county but the two lesser known ones are close to Rock Eagle.


----------



## Kawaliga (Mar 17, 2014)

The rows of rock piles in Talbot county near the Flint River are on hills so steep, it makes no sense that historic farmers made them to clear land for cultivation. Erosion would have been too severe.


----------



## drippin' rock (Mar 17, 2014)

Obviously I can't speak for every rock pile, but the one in this thread looks just like the piles my grandfather and his helpers piled in the edges of the fields he plowed 75+ years ago.  The simplest answer is usually the correct answer. Just a pile of rocks. 

If they were in the shape of an eagle then we would have something to talk about.


----------



## NCHillbilly (Mar 18, 2014)

Kawaliga said:


> The rows of rock piles in Talbot county near the Flint River are on hills so steep, it makes no sense that historic farmers made them to clear land for cultivation. Erosion would have been too severe.



Haha. You should see some of the cultivated fields here. You can fall out of the field while you're hoeing corn and break your leg. Makes it easier to dig taters, though-you can just stick a bucket under the tater row and chop the end out of it and they'll roll right into the bucket. 

Just curious as to why you're throwing out the most likely origins? Indians didn't do much building at all with rocks. Cherokee Indians would sometimes pile rocks over the grave of a fallen warrior as a memorial, and other Indians would throw a rock on the pile as they passed by. They don't usually look like that, though-those look like somewhat worked, quarried rocks. They're all the same type of rock, about the same size and shape. I would say there's a 99.9999% chance that those are of white farmer origin.


----------



## Hornet22 (Mar 18, 2014)

Just my .02 worth; which don't mean much. My Pop's ole home place burnt to the ground in the late '80's. It was a big house with 12' ceilings, lots of fireplaces, one in ery room. I got 2 truck loads of granite that looks a whole lot, well, just like, those rocks. They were used to build up the chimneys till they got to the point that they laid the bricks


----------



## Paymaster (Mar 18, 2014)

In the pic, I see no sign of old growth forest. That leads me to believe that it was piled by farmers back in the day.


----------



## Forest Grump (Mar 18, 2014)

Kawaliga said:


> The rows of rock piles in Talbot county near the Flint River are on hills so steep, it makes no sense that historic farmers made them to clear land for cultivation. Erosion would have been too severe.



Erosion wasn't really a concern during the early days of farming here. They cleared every square inch to farm, cut & burned or sawed forests of trees centuries old, in places we would never even consider farming, & would be worried to even clearcut now. They plowed straight over hills (contour plowing had not been conceived of), resulting in massive erosion. Most of the famous red clay soil of the piedmont is exposed because of erosion caused by bad farming practices; when the Europeans arrived, most of that was forest with a good layer of organic humus topsoil on it. 

Also, they usually hauled the rocks from the areas they did farm to the places they couldn't (too steep, wet, etc...) by wagons or sledges/sleds, to dump them (= why you see so many piles of approximately one wagon load). I had one place where they had used the rocks to build a stackstone wall many hundreds of yards long, on land with the worst gumbo clay I have ever dealt with, virtually impossible to farm on now, but somebody tried, for a lot of years.


----------



## Milkman (Mar 18, 2014)

Milkman said:


> Do any of them have evidence of quarry boring, sawing, or blasting? Are there any granite quarries in the area?
> 
> If not, my bet would be the native folks here before the European invaders (us) came along put them there.  The fact that many of them are smooth sided shows they were gathered for some reason.  Not as grand as the eagle and hawk formations over in Putnam but they very well may have had a ceremonial meaning.





trad bow said:


> Those definitely show signs of being quarried. I know of several home sites here in Putnam on NF land that have stones 2'x3'x4' that were quarried around here. There are four ceremonial sites here in Putnam that have wildlife as the formations. Along with  Rock Eagle and Rock Hawk is one known as the Presley site and one known as the Rock Snake. The Presley site has been ransacked over the years and no one can determine what the formation was originally like. Of course I am getting a little age on me and the last two may be reversed in my description but they are on private land and cannot be access. These are the only known and recognized formations east of the Mississippi. Well worth looking at the Hawk and Eagle if you are passing thru area. They are on separate sides of the county but the two lesser known ones are close to Rock Eagle.



If those do have boring marks or some other evidence of being quarried they may just be scrap from a quarry.
I didnt think of it when I made my original response, but I remember seeing something similar while hunting a place in eastern Oglethorpe County.  The place was near an old former quarry site.  There was a gully full of all shapes and sizes of scrap granite.  

Your piles may each represent an early days truck or wagon load of scrap granite if they were quarried in the past 150 years or so.


----------



## Forest Grump (Mar 18, 2014)

Paymaster said:


> In the pic, I see no sign of old growth forest. That leads me to believe that it was piled by farmers back in the day.



I agree with you, but those are dogwood trees in the pic with the child; it could have been clearcut any time from the 50's to the 90's & those trees could have grown there since, can't really tell what it looked like when they piled those rocks there.


----------



## 95g atl (Mar 18, 2014)

Hornet22 said:


> Just my .02 worth; which don't mean much. My Pop's ole home place burnt to the ground in the late '80's. It was a big house with 12' ceilings, lots of fireplaces, one in ery room. I got 2 truck loads of granite that looks a whole lot, well, just like, those rocks. They were used to build up the chimneys till they got to the point that they laid the bricks



Could be.  There are a few different piles.  The one in the pic being the largest.  I should have taken more pics of the other rocks....



Paymaster said:


> In the pic, I see no sign of old growth forest. That leads me to believe that it was piled by farmers back in the day.



True, I noticed that first, but this land is used for timber on occasion.



Forest Grump said:


> I agree with you, but those are dogwood trees in the pic with the child; it could have been clearcut any time from the 50's to the 90's & those trees could have grown there since, can't really tell what it looked like when they piled those rocks there.




This land is occasionally thinned and planted for timber.


----------



## Timberman (Mar 18, 2014)

The entire southeast especially the piedmont with very very few exceptions was cleared for cultivation in days past. The rest was chopped down for firewood, log homes and split rail fence. 
I vote rocks from clearing fields...


----------



## EAGLE EYE 444 (Mar 18, 2014)

Well after looking and reading various comments about this, I think that these rocks are basically related to a quarry site from probably no more than 100-125 years ago.  There are some quarry sites located in Warren County and these rocks appear to be more from a quarry due to the size and various flatter type edges on some of them.  

In fact, there are several active quarries located between Augusta and westward through Columbia County, Mcduffie, Warren , Hancock,  and on down toward Macon.  These quarries appear to be the same type of rock that are shown in your photo.


----------



## 95g atl (Mar 18, 2014)

EAGLE EYE 444 said:


> Well after looking and reading various comments about this, I think that these rocks are basically related to a quarry site from probably no more than 100-125 years ago.  There are some quarry sites located in Warren County and these rocks appear to be more from a quarry due to the size and various flatter type edges on some of them.
> 
> In fact, there are several active quarries located between Augusta and westward through Columbia County, Mcduffie, Warren , Hancock,  and on down toward Macon.  These quarries appear to be the same type of rock that are shown in your photo.



Good observation and makes sense. 
I'm going to scout more of that area when I don't have my toddler with me and see what else I find. Also pull up some of the rocks and take additional pics. 
Thx


----------



## GLS (Mar 19, 2014)

"No shoulders" love rock piles. Be careful.


----------



## drippin' rock (Mar 19, 2014)

EAGLE EYE 444 said:


> Well after looking and reading various comments about this, I think that these rocks are basically related to a quarry site from probably no more than 100-125 years ago.  There are some quarry sites located in Warren County and these rocks appear to be more from a quarry due to the size and various flatter type edges on some of them.
> 
> In fact, there are several active quarries located between Augusta and westward through Columbia County, Mcduffie, Warren , Hancock,  and on down toward Macon.  These quarries appear to be the same type of rock that are shown in your photo.




Could we compromise with quarried rock piled up by farmers?


----------



## K80 (Mar 19, 2014)

Milkman said:


> If those do have boring marks or some other evidence of being quarried they may just be scrap from a quarry.
> I didnt think of it when I made my original response, but I remember seeing something similar while hunting a place in eastern Oglethorpe County.  The place was near an old former quarry site.  There was a gully full of all shapes and sizes of scrap granite.
> 
> Your piles may each represent an early days truck or wagon load of scrap granite if they were quarried in the past 150 years or so.



I could see it being grout piles from years ago or from a foundation.  They do look like they were quarried.

I don't know that those rocks would have been pulled from a field for cultivation unless it was from an old homesite that they were turning into a field.  Granite typically runs wide and very deep in the ground.  I've seen some quarries bigger than some one red light small towns.


----------



## T-N-T (Mar 19, 2014)

I have seen a few piles of rocks from farming.  They were not as flat as those.  But the pic could be misleading...  I dont know exactly why quarried rock would be cast aside though.  They sell it all.  Big head stone pieces.  down to gravel.  I vote alien farming overrun by native americans.


----------



## EAGLE EYE 444 (Mar 19, 2014)

GLS said:


> "No shoulders" love rock piles. Be careful.




95g atl, be cautious in your future visits to these rock deposits etc because of the following information.

GLS has made a very good point here about mr. no-shoulders.  Be very careful around these types of rocks due to snakes and ALSO fireants love to set up residence in and around these type of rocks as well.  In fact, cemeteries is one of the most desired habitats for fireants.  They love to be able to reside underneath rock type/tombstone type granite slabs.

It is bad to say this but several years ago I was attending a funeral one afternoon and while the preacher was performing the service at the grave site.  All of a sudden, a lady began to jump up and down and dance around screaming and hollering like crazy.  Most of us thought that she had lost her mind at that point.  I thought that she must have had a close encounter with Jesus or something BUT it turned out that she had stood right in a big fireant bed and they had covered her before she realized it.   It broke up the service for a few minutes while several people helped her to get these ants off of her.  It was a few years later when I heard a cemetery worker say that they had at least 10,000 fireants for every person buried in that cemetery and they could never kill them all as they just kept multiplying daily it seemed.


----------



## bigelow (Mar 20, 2014)

Interesting read.


----------

