With all the stone walls in our area, I wonder how many people have asked themselves one or two questions concerning them. The first and easiest is the why. Our New England soil is known for being rocky and Rochester’s soil was no different and presented the early settlers with not just how to remove the rocks, but what to do with them.
Since farm animals would be grazing in fields, there was a need to provide a barrier to their wandering off. A stone wall was the perfect solution. In the case of larger animals, like the ones imprisoned in a town pound, such as the one on Snipatuit Road, the pound walls would simply have been built higher.
It’s questions about how a farmer with his horse could move the large boulders that we see in some of our area walls that are answered by the “rock scoop” featured in our current exhibit. If you look closely at the picture, you may be able to see the hooks on the sides. There are also spaces for wooden handles. the farmer would hitch the scoop to his horse with the sharp edge facing front.
When he and his horse approached a boulder, the sharp edge would be placed under the rock and a signal to his horse would have the horse move forward scooping it into the scoop. Then it would be dragged to where the wall was being built. This very old and rusty rock scoop was found in a stone wall at the back of a farm property.
By Connie Eshbach
