Conemaugh Gap - Hillside

Just a beautiful day to head out for a little rockpile hunting - at the beginning of the Conemaugh Gap - Haws Pike side. Thought this was neat - boulder with a little fossil action going on.

I just love stuff like this.

Spotted a couple of nice size - oval - rockpiles - though it's probably pretty hard to tell from this shot.

Four stones - that make up a circle - pointing towards the gap.

A nice size - round - rockpile with a tree growing out of it.

This thing just caught my eye - most likely natural - but it looks like a kind of saddle.

I'll tell you though - sitting on this stone - you do get a nice view of the valley down below,

Another large rockpile - with an even bigger tree growing out of it.

Another large rockpile - with a triangle stone that caught my eye.

And finally this example

Stone Cabin - Lower Yoder

A possible stone chamber - known as the 'stone cabin' in Lower Yoder Township. As luck would have it - it's a site first brought to my attention by Norman Mueller and Kathy at http://twoheadwaters.blogspot.com/. I missed it - in my own neck of the woods. And in a strange twist a reader at my sister site Vintage Johnstown sent in these two pictures of her dad at the structure in the 1980's.
The story goes that it is a hunting cabin used for decades. It's been on my list to search for alot of reasons - but the main one is that the location of this structure lines up with some large rock mounds - a few of miles away. I would like to thank Kathy at twoheadwaters for pointing this out to me. This used to be a popular GPS cache spot till the neighbors started complaining.

Evans Hill Area - Part 4

Part 4 and a wrap up of my visit to Evans Hill. I am now going to head to the area of the woods directly behind where I am standing - where I last left off HERE.

These two things caught my eye. One is a short, rectangle like, stump of a wall like thing - more cigar shaped than anything else and the other is a circular mound that looks burial to me.

This example is exactly the same as the type I've found elsewhere.

This possible structure right by it - on the other hand - I'm not very sure of. Could be field clearing - but to me - it does look like a long rockpile - it does have some age to it.

As far as you eye can see - more rock on rock.

And small rockpiles.

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Now heading back out to the car - a different way than where we walked in and in the words of my 7 year old nephew - "what a beautiful view" - I have to agree - with a nice rock on rock example pointing the way.

Nice size cairn that shows its age.

Another mess of a cairn.

Back to back cairns - I've posted example of these structures before.

Trying my best to show them both in one shot.

Closeup of the cairn on the upper left of the previous picture. See that triangle stone - it points north - according to my GPS.

RJ proudly showing off his coyote skull he found there.

Another mess of a cairn.

From the other side.

Another rockpile

This one and this next example.

All in all - this site is alot to take in. When we were almost done walking around - one of the homeowners (who is nice to us) stopped to talk. He owns the land where THIS GRINDING STONE is. I was asking him about his property - because I'd spotted lots more rockpiles and a wall that shows some age. He told me - the wall was there before him as were some of the rockpiles - but not all though. He said he'd made some of them clearing his backyard.

Wrapping up this long, four part series...there are more walls and rockpiles out there that next time I go out I will get some shots of - once the snow melts that is. My opinion of the site hasn't changed the more I explore the area. I believe it was once held as a very sacred and ceremonial place - more so than most of your average sites. I believe that the area now destroyed by the strip mine - most likely was like this section - full of rock on rock and small rockpiles.

Evans Hill Area - Part 3

Out of the woods and back to the field full of very large - round rockpiles. RJ is about to check out this rockpile - which I believe is field clearing with an older - round rockpile in the distance.

This is one of those rockpiles that shows up in the 1939 aerial shot. But like I said - looks like field clearing. Though having said that - it is built up on the bottom like the others - I guess someone could have dumped these larger stones on top. But I really don't think so.

This is a shot of the large rockpile that was in the distance. Off to the left hand side (not shown on this picture) was this...

Is this possible rock mound - but I didn't get a chance to check this possible structure out better - just off in the woods.

Another rockpile in the field - made up of larger stone - which again looks more like field clearing. But it looks like there might be something off in the distance - that I didn't have time to follow up on.

Another rockpile - with the previous pile behind it - this is hard to tell - considering the size of the tree growing out of it. But I do think it's more likely to be field clearing.

But now we're heading to a section that I do believe are structures of very large size. See what I mean about bigger stone on the outside and smaller used in the middle.

Some of these larger rockpiles are built up higher on one side - actually they are all built up (like a ramp) on the same side of each of these.

And again - it looks like a possible manitou stone in the upper left hand side.

Another rockpile - but first - before I talk about this one - there is another rockpile underneath where that tree fell in the distance. But I didn't get a chance to get any shots of it.

This stone is actuallly wedged in there pretty good - with what looks like some stray bullet damage.

The center of the structure.

This is another rockpile - note the 'ramp'.

RJ heading to the ramp.

It's built up more like a small wall - with the mound off in the distance.

Another rockpile in the same area - that looks like field clearing to me.

The thing is just a mess.

RJ off to check out another of the rockpiles.

Again - larger stone on the outer ring - smaller towards the center.