Crew surveying along longest rock wall on the farmstead.

The most prominent historic features on the Williams farmstead are rock walls and alignments that were constructed by moving large limestone boulders and cobbles. This photo shows the PAI archeological crew standing along one of the most substantial rock walls on the property. Designated as Rock Wall F, this wall runs for more than 280 ft in a long, curved line that runs generally east-west but follows along the edge of the upland flat area.

Rock Wall F is the most intact and impressive man-made feature that survived on the Williams farm, and it took a tremendous amount of hard labor to build. But it is not a coincidence that this rock wall occurs at this location. It was built as a livestock fence, and it was the logical dividing point between the flat cultivated fields to the south from the sloping wooded pastureland to the north. Not coincidentally, the location of Rock Wall F corresponds perfectly with the break between the wooded and cultivated areas that is visible in the 1937 aerial photograph.

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