CHAPTER 5

CAIRNS AND CEREMONIAL STONE SITES IN THE CATSKILLS

Brought to the region by the first Paleo-settlers would have been a tradition found common among the earliest cultures identified worldwide: building with stone. The first things humans did when they came down from the trees were to build things with stones. Not all of what they built with stones were tools. Some of what they built in stone was expressive, monumental, or ceremonial in purpose, representing their belief system and perhaps incorporating elements of Sun and Earth worship into their stone constructions. Many examples exist of this worldwide. Building in stone is considered one of the oldest fundamental activities of early humans, and there’s no reason to believe this was not done in the northeast of North America, as in other regions of the world.

Throughout the Hudson Valley and the Shawangunk and Catskill Mountains are found many examples of such possible ceremonial stone monument sites, perhaps established by the earliest inhabitants of the region to express their spiritual practices. Some but not all listed here are discussed in this chapter.

CAIRN SITES AND CAIRN COMPLEXES

• The Great Cairns of Overlook Mountain, Woodstock, New York (see chapter 4, “Serpent of the North”)
• East Overlook Cairns, Woodstock, New York
• Quarry Tract, Woodstock, New York
• Mount Tremper, Woodstock, New York
• Sloan Gorge, Woodstock, New York
• Mink Hollow Cairn Fields I and II, Lake Hill, Woodstock, New York
• Silver Hollow Cairn and Mega Wall Complex, Willow, New York
• Bearsville Hollow Cairn Field, Bearsville, Woodstock, New York
• Jessop Road Cairns, Willow, New York
• Mount Tobias Chambers, Curving Walls, and Cairns, Woodstock, New York
• Ohayo Mountain Cairns and Solstice Wall, Woodstock, New York
• Huckleberry Point Cairn Field and Equinox Wall, Platte Cove, Tannersville, New York
• Omega Institute, Red Hook, New York
• Spruceton Valley Cairn Complex, West Kill, New York
• Bovina Cairns, Bovina, New York
• Norton Road Cairns and Walls, Red Hook, New York
• Halcott Mountain Cairn and Wall Complex, Halcott Mountain Wild Forest, West Kill, New York
• Shaupeneak Ridge Park Cairns and Walls, Esopus, New York
• Overlook North “Temple,” Woodstock, New York

Fig. 5.1. Cairn and stone wall site locations in the Catskill Mountains and Hudson River valley of New York, also showing the Hammonasset Line