News & Features
September 2005

HOT ROCKS
Stone “rustling” is on the rise
By Sarah Heller

Age-Old Recipe Here is a summary of Thorson’s stone-aging recipe: Ingredients acid organic matter nitrogen and phosphorous alternating wet & dry 1. On a dry day, brush or spray some non-toxic weak acid (lemon juice, vinegar, old cider) on the stone, perhaps a gallon of vinegar. 2. Make a tea of natural organic materials (topsoil, manure, compost in water). Mix in a handful or two of plant fertilizer and add enough oatmeal (or old bread) to make thin slurry of natural organic chemicals and sticky starches. 3. Wait for dry weather, and paint the stone with this mixture. After a few days of no rain, mist the wall to keep the process going. 4. Water periodically (if it doesn't rain), and let time pass. 5. Reapply as you feel so moved. Of course there is a bit of zinger at the end of the recipe when Thorson adds this caveat: “Please let me know if this works. It should work, but I don't know if it does!” In any case, I doubt that a would-be stone wall thief would be willing to do all that work and wait the necessary time to age stone, do you? Of course, it is hard to fathom the mind of someone who thinks he can steal part of a landscape.

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?

I took to pondering all this because on Nov. 5 of this year, UConn Professor Robert Thorson, a geologist and leading authority on stone walls, will be the guide on an interesting hiking tour of the Brookfields, exploring not only stone walls, but also other stone structures, such as Rock House in West Brookfield. For more information on the tour, email info@activebynature.com or call 978-928-3306.

“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://web.uconn.edu/stonewall/thorson/).

Professor Thorson’s efforts to preserve and promote interest in stone walls have led him in a number of directions, including authoring several books on the subject as well as the creation of an elementary curriculum. It seems that children are drawn to stone walls and teachers can use this to good advantage to interest them in science, archaeology, ecology, even math and chemistry.

Another of Thorson’s efforts is the founding of “The Stone Wall Initiative,” a web-based clearinghouse that provides an opportunity to join others with a similar appreciation of this New England treasure. Visit http://web.uconn.edu/stonewall/swSWIintro.html to join or learn more.

Thorson even has on his website a recipe for making a new stone wall look old. He hopes that people will try this instead of tearing down old walls in order to acquire the patina-worn stones for use in another place. He says that stealing stone walls is like taking apart a piece of antique furniture in order to use the wood in some other project. For the “stone patina” recipe and an interesting discussion about what goes into the aging process, visit http://web.uconn.edu/stonewall/swformula2.html.

*The Chairman of Brookfield Historical Commission, Ron Couture, read this article prior to publication and pointed out to me that the Massachusetts Scenic Highways Act provides for much harsher penalties to stone walls that border a scenic highway, and there are more and more scenic highways being designated every year.