Stories in Stone: How Geology Influenced Connecticut History and Culture

Afterword: Our Lithic Inheritance

Afterword Our Lithic Inheritance The Introduction began with a narrative of a hike in one of the wooded sections of Connecticut and an encounter with a stone wall that once enclosed a farmer’s field, which is presently surrounded by dense growth. Right there, a very small but essential part of Connecticut ’s history was revealed in its basic simplicity. Continuing the trail uphill, one can see that fewer and fewer glacial rocks of the type used to build stone walls crop out and patches of bedrock , shaved smooth by glaciers and fringed by mosses, become more common. The path connects to a deeply rutted and partially overgrown road that leads to a small quarry. Rows of holes a few inches deep show how slabs of rock have been pried from the outcrop with hammer and chisel. Judging from the size of the quarry, one may conclude that barely enough rock was removed to construct the foundations for two or three farm houses and their barns. Similar stone walls and little quarries cover much of the state, a testimony to the extent to which colonists depended on their lithic environment. From early on, Connecticut ’s land and its geology had a major influence on its people, but in the last century it has become clear that the Yankees have an even greater influence on the land. In the last few decades alone, central Connecticut has gradually become part of a metropolis that stretches from Washington, D.C., to Boston. The Central Valley is clogged with clusters of homes, tall buildings, and highways. Along the coast, wetlands have been dredged to accommodate marinas and filled in to provide building lots. Only six state parks where families can go to spend a day at the beach can be found along the 240-mile coastline. Inland, rivers have been impounded, and quarries bite large gaps into ridge crests. c 172 stories in stone 1. Some (misplaced) protection can be found in a little park in Hartford, where the sculptor Carl Andre arranged thirty-six boulders, saved from the crusher, in a triangular space. The price of this protection came to more than $2,400 per rock, much of it provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. The present-day capacity of Connecticut’s citizens to erode the land significantly exceeds that of nature’s. To save at least part of the land from further abuse, The Nature Conservancy has designated twenty-one sites as preserves and wildlife areas, and the state has set aside land for ninety parks and thirty state forests. Although some of these areas contain valuable geologic entities , their principal aim is to preserve the ecology. Only two sites exist to protect important geologic features: the Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill and the Brownstone Quarry in Portland. Most quarries have instead become private property, and one of the most famous, the Strickland pegmatite quarry near Portland, is now part of a golf course. Other important sites, such as Southington’s Great Unconformity , Durham’s fossil fish locality, and Salisbury’s Bashful Lady Cave, are insufficiently protected or presently closed to the public.1 Geology is simply not considered to be as important as ecology, despite the fact that while most plants and animals repopulate, a crystal or fossil, once removed, can never be reborn. In 1677, Matthew Hale wrote in The Primitive Origination of Mankind, “Minerals are a degree below vegetables.” In those days, the physical environment was often perceived as antagonistic, and rocks were the most difficult to deal with. Nowadays, caring about our ecology has become fashionable, but little appears to have changed on the geologic side. Rocks and minerals still rank far below the birds and the bees. Children entering mineral exhibits in museums are entranced by the variety of colors and shapes and can’t believe that such splendor grows underground. Their interest piqued after such a visit, they often pick up the first attractive rock they see along the road or on a beach and bring it home. In most cases, those rocks wind up in the backyard, banned from the home under the motto “rocks belong outside.” Fieldstone fireplaces and granite kitchen countertops, on the other hand, are accepted because they serve a “purpose.” Such selective discrimination needs to stop! A common rock or mineral, especially a native one, should sit on everyone’s mantelpiece, bookshelf, [3.144.109.5] Project MUSE (2024-04-25 02:30...