America’s Stonehenge

Recently, Time Life Magazine reissued their special edition of 'Strange Places' - one of the two publications with Time my photography has been featured in. This re-release had me rooting around in my Mystery Hill folder and I found a journal entry I had written about my visit to one of New Hampshire's little hidden gems.

It is as follows:

It’s a cool and damp spring day in the woods of New Hampshire. Surrounded by crumbling stone structures, I found myself standing before a sacrificial stone in an area better known as “America’s Stonehenge”.

Mystery surrounds these woods. Questions begged to answered. Who built this? And for what purpose?

America’s Stonehenge is located about an hour north of Boston, in Salem, New Hampshire - (not to be confused with the famous witch town of Salem, Massachusetts.) No one really knows who built it, why they built it or even what it was used for.  Theories abound about its purpose - from ancient North American tribes conducting sacrifices to early Christian Irish Monks to various land uses of 18th and 19th century farmers.

Previously known as Mystery Hill, the name was changed in 1982 to ‘America’s Stonehenge’ to ‘better reflect’ what the current owners believe is one of the site’s main functions - namely an astronomical calendar.  The sacrificial table, perhaps being the most controversial,  is the epicenter of a group of intricate stone structures. The structures, being too small to be dwellings, are thought to have been used for ceremonial purposes. Surrounding these structures is a 12-acre circular calendar consisting of aligned monoliths to mark the changing seasons surrounds the main ‘ceremonial’ site.

While natural occurrences in the Earth’s shifting plates undoubtably caused damage to the site, (yes, New Hampshire lies on a surprising number or dormant and active fault lines) there are many other reasons why the site is so deeply shrouded in mystery.

Once upon a time, there was a working farm on the land owned originally owned by the Pattee family. The Pattee’s being farmers, modified and used some of the existing structures for various purposes such as root cellars and livestock shelters.  There was also a good deal of quarrying and removal of  large slabs of the readily available granite. And there was William Goodwin, a man so convinced that the site was built by Christian Irish monks,  long before Christopher Columbus’  ‘discovery’, that he rearranged stones to ‘fit’ his theories. For all these reasons  - no definite answer to the site’s builders or reason of existence seem forthcoming. 

What started off as a beautiful clear day, quickly became overcast with threatening looking clouds.  An ominous sign? Or just more proof that the weather in this area changed on the turn of a dime - the whole “Don’t like the weather... wait a few minutes” theory. Not to one to be discouraged by a few clouds, onward I drove until I came to the incredibly pitted and muddy... and I hesitate to call it... parking lot.  Fortunately, there did not seem too many other visitors - which was alright by me.

The property is over 110 acres of trails and is privately owned and operated - so of course there was the matter of “the fee”.  After becoming a few dollars lighter, armed with my camera and guide map, I was on my way to the trails.

The woods were still in their somewhat quiet phase as it was only April 12th and not all the forest critters had returned from their winter getaways. The peacefulness was only broken by the occasional creaking of winter barren trees swaying in the breeze.

The first structure I came across was, according to the trail guide, the ‘Watch House’.  It is a rather shallow cavern - not more than 6 or 7 feet in length - built into a hill using a large glacial bolder as one wall. A large, flat granite slab is fitted across as the roof with smaller granite stones piled up to form the opposite support wall. Situated on one end of a double-walled path, it was named the ‘Watch House’ due to it’s location to the  main site. Too small to be a permanent dwelling, but enough shelter to protect a person from the elements, it is speculated that perhaps this structure was used a shelter for a guard.

"Watch House"

At this point, some overly loud hikers join me at the watch house.  Not wanting to my experience to be overshadowed by comments of a more juvenile nature, I deviated from the map and wandered down some other trails to explore.  There was also a large ‘thaw swamp’ alive with surface water bugs and something larger that went Ker-PLOP and disappeared.  The standing stone that originally caught my attention doesn’t appear anywhere on my guide map - nor the wall it is part of - but I was intrigued none the less and snapped a few photos of it.

Random standing stone

Looking around, I noticed the whole area was marked with letters or numbers. I realized that I had wandered onto the second map of the Astronomical Trail. Excellent!


The first marker I found was the True North Stone. During 1974 and 1975 it was determined by Mr. Osborn Stone (past manager) that this monolith was the true north alignment for the pole star. Excavations were conducted in 1989 to 1991 in order to investigate the base of this stone as well as sections of the adjacent wall. A fire pit was discovered in front of the stone at a higher level than it’s base and indicates that stone had been placed prior to the fire pit. Amazingly, a radio carbon dating was taken of the charcoal samples and a date of 650 AD was obtained.

Moving on down the trail I stumbled upon the Summer Solstice Sunrise Monolith.  It is somewhat unimpressive in size and doesn’t look much different from the standing stone I found earlier.  It does, however, line up with an important astronomical event - the Summer Solstice Sunrise of approximately 4000 years ago. (Due to changes in the tilt of the earth over the last 4000 years - the stones no longer line up with the current astronomical events.)

As I approached this standing stone, the sun decided to grace me with a very brief appearance. So brief in fact, I was only able to snap off 3 or 4 shots before it goes back to it’s hiding place behind the clouds.

Summer Solstice Sunrise Stone

The stone itself is unextraordinary at first glance. But when one really looks at it - it is quite beautiful in it’s simplicity with its strange pointed shape and the proud way it stands over looking the valley below. While I experienced no flashes of light (as suggested by one theory of Tectonic Strain Theory) or brilliant ephiphanies - but I did feel at one with my surroundings. Whether that was due to the site itself or just my love for being in the woods, I may never know. Taking a few moments to absorb the view and enjoy the silence and solitude before finally moved to the main site.

The sky was getting more and more ominous and so I made my way towards the main site.

I entered the main site through the exit, so it takes me a few minutes to get my bearings straight and figure out which part of the site I am at. After taking a quick look around, I see it... the 'Sacrificial Stone'.  I obediently followed the signs to the viewing platform to gaze down at it.

Hmph. I was very far away. I looked left. I looked right. No one of authority seemed to be around (the bonus of off season visits!). I hopped down over the ‘fence’ and, ignoring the occasional suggestions from the few rule abiding visitors on the viewing platform to “hop on”,  I got an up close and personal look at the stone.

Sacrificial Stone

This 4.5 ton grooved slab of granite is one of the most controversial structures on the site. Supporters of the idea that the area was a ceremonial site used by ancient natives, say that this structure was grooved and notched, to catch the blood of sacrifices below the table in a bowl. Others say this structure is actually a Lye  Stone, used to leach lye out of ashes and produce soap by 17th or 18th- century farmers in the area. Having seen photos of similar lye stones, one might be able to conclude they are correct – BUT what about the “Oracle Chamber”?

Ahhhh, the “Oracle Chamber”. It is probably, in my humble opinion,  the most interesting structure on the property.

Entrance to the Oracle Chamber

Walking down a few ancient stones steps and I peered into the chamber. It was small, dark, dank and much colder than the outside temperature. I expected a bellowing moan and a gust of ancient air to warn me from entering, but sadly, nothing moans or gusts.

It is a T-shaped chamber about only 5 feet in height - so I have to bend a little to walk through. The floor of the chamber was slick with moisture, so I moved cautiously through and finally came to the ‘Secret Bed’. Located below the ‘Speaking Tube’, it is an extremely narrow niche only large enough for one person to crawl into and be completely concealed. The theory is a priest would hide himself in this niche and speak into the tube. Words spoken through this stone-lined tube would travel and exit under the Sacrificial table - giving the impression that the voice was coming from the table itself and hence the term 'Oracle Chamber'.  Why would this chamber and tube exist for a farmers simple lye stone? I stuck my head and shoulders in the niche to see as much as I could, but it was pitch black. A braver person may try to squeeze their whole self in for an even closer look - I am not that person.

A few feet ahead of the Secret Bed is an opening in the roof. Two stone louvres were once in place offering ventilation into the chamber that could be opened and closed. Also of interest - is a carving discovered in the 1930’s.  It is of a running deer, and believed to have been drawn by natives long ago. No testing (that I could discover) has been done to prove this. I tried to find the carving but it was too dark and shooting my flash off repeatedly to illuminate the chamber only succeeded in rendering myself temporarily blinded.  It was only with a stroke of luck, that I managed to get my camera to focus and flash to fire to get a couple of interior pictures that were in focus.

Interior of the Oracle Chamber - looking from the Secret Bed to the louvres

I exit the chamber (through the entrance, of course) to poke around other portions of the site above.  There are a number of  smaller chambers - again, too small to have been dwellings, but so well built that they must have been used for some purpose. Storage perhaps? But of what? Or are they some of the stones Goodwin moved around? Yet another unanswered question.

While I was wandering among the cairns and structures - a big fat raindrop hit my arm. The clouds had turned blackish gray and the weather decided to become particularly unfriendly.  With one last look around, I decided this is a good time to pack it in and head back through the woods to my car. 

I have no idea who built this site or why, but it seems entirely plausible that it was first constructed by early natives. Evidence of hundred of chips and flakes from stone unearthed at the site, suggest that the site was at least partially constructed with tools consistent with indigenous tools consistent with the Native American lithic techniques.

Many believe that the history of this region only ranges back a few hundred years and that the inhabitants were few in number. Not true. This land was not a ‘virgin land’ but a ‘widowed land’. After Europeans came to North America, it is believed that over 90% of the native population perished due to contracting common European diseases such as smallpox, measles, mumps and whooping cough, to which they had no immunity.  Cultures and languages were either lost completely or absorbed by other tribes. Stories of sacred lands were gone or turned in folklore - locations and reasons gone forever.  Much like this one.