Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of
Seneca Lake Mysteries, the podcast exploring
the unusual, strange, and unexplained on New
York's largest finger lake. Thanks as always
for listening, and if you haven't done so, please
subscribe to the podcast, like, comment, share.
Make sure to visit SenecaLakeMysteries .com and
subscribe there on the website so you don't miss
any updates. So this time around, Rick from Alpine
is back on the podcast as we discuss our recent
visit to Connecticut Hill to look for a mysterious
stone pile that Rick first saw and photographed
back in 2022. And just like our last trip to
the Alpine portal, which we talked about in episode
10, this time we also found a lot more than we
anticipated. But first... I have a story from
a listener who heard the episode 13 story of
the multi -witness UFO sighting in Ovid back
in 1980. After hearing the story, the listener
was reminded of a sighting his mother had in
the same time frame. So here's that story as
it was told to me. So the listener's family lived
on a farm in the Ovid -Lodi area. And one night
in 1980... When the listener was around 8 to
10 years old, his mother woke up at around 2
a .m. one morning and felt a strange compulsion
to look out of the bedroom window. And when she
got to the window, she saw an extremely bright,
glowing object hovering in the air, not too far
from the ground, roughly 100 yards from the house.
She then... kneeled in front of the window to
kind of settle in to watch this strange object
which she estimated to be approximately the size
of a volleyball although it was giving off an
extraordinary amount of light and then suddenly
the object steadily began moving directly towards
the woman into the backyard of the house as she
said the entire backyard was brightly lit by
this object's blinding intensity. Then the object
stopped within 10, 20 feet of the house below
the bedroom window where the woman was watching.
And then the object floated straight up and stopped
directly in front of her. Now, she later said
that at no time was she alarmed or afraid. Instead,
she was just kind of... amazed and mesmerized
by the object. So it floated there directly outside
the window for maybe 30 seconds or a minute,
almost as if it was greeting the woman or at
least like letting her know that it knew she
was watching like they were both observing each
other. And again, the entire backyard is lit
up by the light coming from this orb. Then...
The object moved away from the window, headed
further away to the west, picking up speed before
it dipped down below the horizon and towards
Seneca Lake. And then the woman just went back
to bed. And the next day, she spoke to her family
about the experience. Nobody else in the family
had woken up or seen the orb or knew anything
about it. And they kind of... in the moment chalked
it up as, you know, a one -time weird event that
the mother had experienced until they saw the
story in the Finger Lakes Times, the story that
I discussed in that previous episode. Now, the
listener wasn't able to give the exact number
of days that had gone by between his mother's
sighting and the newspaper report, but he was
very confident that it was no more than several
days because... When the family saw the article,
they got very excited to learn that the sighting
on their farm and what their mother saw very
likely wasn't the only sighting in the area around
that time. And although the encounter was incredibly
strange, the mother didn't report it to the newspaper
or anyone, and it just kind of became part of
the family's history, just that. you know, one
weird night where mom saw something unexplainable
in the backyard. And the listener decided to
contact me because he said that while he hadn't
completely forgotten the event, it sort of, you
know, faded into the mists of time, like in the
back of his mind. And he didn't think about it
too often. But after hearing episode 13, he said
that memory came back and decided to reach out
and tell me the story so I could share it with
all of you. So I want to thank the listener.
very much for getting a hold of me and sharing
this family story from decades ago, because at
least for me, it adds more credibility and weight
to the sighting that was reported in the paper
40 -plus years ago. And it adds one more compelling
anomalous story to the long and wide -ranging
history of the unusual, strange... and unexplained
around Seneca Lake. So, and before we get to
the interview with Rick, I also want to share
a quick one from an article in the Elmira Star
Gazette that was published on August 21st, 1895.
So we're going back to the old days, olden days.
Now, although the article doesn't provide any
names or exact locations, it still paints a pretty
cool picture of a mysterious buried treasure.
near Seneca Lake that, if it exists, may never
have been found. So what happened is in the summer
of 1895, two visitors arrived in Geneva, New
York, at the northern end of Seneca Lake. These
were two men who were from Elmira, New York,
which is about 20 miles south of Watkins Glen
at the southern tip of Seneca Lake. And these
men were hunting for... hidden riches. They said
that their story was that another man, who was
also unnamed, had been just a few days from his
death and confessed that he had helped rob a
bank in Geneva 47 years earlier. Now, this man,
in his deathbed confession, said that he and
his Fellow bank robbers netted about $25 ,000,
which they stashed in an iron box that was then
secured inside an oak box and buried in a ravine
on the eastern shore of Seneca Lake. So this
duo, these two men from Elmira, spent a week
in Geneva looking into the subject, asking questions,
and then... The article says they grabbed a divining
rod and headed out to visit a lakeside farm in
Lodi that they believed was the location of this
buried treasure. Now, coincidentally, the farm
had also been the location of a previous treasure
hunt several years earlier when a clairvoyant
claimed that a great fortune was hidden somewhere
on the farm, and a group of searchers came there,
dug around, and came up empty. And ultimately,
it's unknown whether the two men from Elmira
ever found Seneca Lake's buried treasure. The
article doesn't say so. Now, if they found it,
they might not have told anyone, because really
it was stolen money, and even back then, it's
unlikely that they would have been allowed to
keep all of it. And if they didn't find it, that
could mean if the treasure actually existed,
it's still buried somewhere in a ravine near
Seneca Lake. So I'm not encouraging anyone to
trespass on private property in search of an
old $25 ,000 treasure chest that might not even
exist. But without any other details, this still
remains. A really cool story and a true mystery.
So, again, thanks for listening. Let's get to
my conversation with Rick. And for those who
may not know, Connecticut Hill, which is also
known as the Alpine Portal, is located several
miles south of Seneca Lake at the southern tip
of the Seneca Lake watershed. And Connecticut
Hill is widely known for mysterious phenomena
like UFOs. hauntings, cryptid sightings, orbs,
anomalous weather, and even some Bigfoot reports,
and more. So a few months back, Rick and I took
a trip up onto the hill to try and locate a large
stone pile in the middle of the woods that Rick
had seen and photographed in 2022. We didn't
find that stone pile, but we did find something
even more interesting, and you can listen to
that older episode to learn about that story.
Also, for those who aren't familiar, native stone
piles have been found around the United States
and the world, including the Northeast U .S.
They can range from small piles to large elaborate
groupings that may include chambers or internal
features. Some were used to mark trails and burial
sites, while others held ceremonial importance
to the people who constructed them. Although
some stone piles and structures may be the remains
of colonial construction, property markers, fences,
stone piles from farming, the stone piles on
Connecticut Hill are in remote locations on very
rugged terrain in steep ravines, which to me
indicates that they were built long before the
arrival of Europeans. in the late 1800s. So thanks
again for listening, and let's get to the chat
with Rick from Alpine. Okay, I'm here with Rick
from Alpine, and we're going to run down our
last visit to Connecticut Hill. Rick, how's it
going? Hey, Tim. How you doing? I'm doing great.
How are you? Good. Cool. A little distracted
earlier today, but I'm doing well now. That's
good. Yeah, we got a little, took a little tweaking
for our audio. I started hearing that echo again
like we did last time, but we're good to go now.
So, yeah, let's get into it. Last weekend on,
I guess it was Sunday the 7th. We met up and
took another trip up to Connecticut Hill. The
first thing I'll mention is that we didn't go
to find the quartz ledge that is up there on
the hill somewhere. Because I guess you have
a neighbor who is going to show you where it
is. yeah he he's really the one who found it
on the side hill so he wasn't available to uh
take us up there but i mean you know we saw quite
a bit of quartz on our walk going up uh anyway
up to where we were going to find the uh rock
mounds yeah yeah for sure there was it was um
at least one like pretty large piece like maybe
a foot wide a couple feet long that was just
kind of embedded right in the ground and really
like when you wander around up there it's not
uncommon just to see chunks of quartz like sitting
here and sitting there um so there's a lot yeah
definitely a lot up there but yeah it's kind
of it's kind of amazing how much uh quartz is
actually around in the area up there you would
think it would be like just rock And not so much
quartz as there is. Right. Yeah, it's definitely
a cool, weird place. And I wonder if that quartz
has anything to do with, I mean, I'm sure the
quartz has something to do with all the strange
things that happen to people up there. And our
day was, I mean, not overtly strange, strange,
but. But there were definitely some odd things
that were happening throughout the day. So we
got there and we went up and we parked. And the
first place we were looking for is the stone
pile that you had photographed. Was it like a
couple of years ago? Yeah, 2022 was actually
when that first picture was taken. uh november
so that was during deer rifle seasons right so
um so that was our first um target so we so we
went up on the we went up on the hill we we walked
up a a logging road into the woods um there's
no no like marked trails or anything there and
um Yeah, it was a beautiful day, you know, mid
-70s, sunny, light breeze, not anywhere close
to as oppressive as it was last time we went
up there when it was like 100 degrees. So we
got there. We headed on the logging road. And
I think at least my phone reception was a little
bit, it wasn't perfect, but it was a little bit
better. in that area than it was in the other
area we were in last time yeah for sure i mean
where that um cell tower is up there it's it's
blocked by the one side of the mountain where
we were the first time so that kind of like blocks
and it kind of goes over your head instead of
down to your phone to get receptions But it was
definitely better there than it was in the first
strip for sure. Yeah. And which made it much,
much easier to try to triangulate where this
mound was and find it from the metadata that
was on the photo that you took back in 2022.
So we headed in. Now, one thing happened. I want
to mention it now. And then we'll come back to
it later. But as we were walking in on the, on
the logging road or an old logging road, you
notice something off of the path, maybe 50, 60
feet off to our left in the trees. And it was
just some kind of white object that was just
sitting. It looked completely out of place. Yeah.
So go ahead. That I thought was one of those
mylar balloons. And there's a whole old like
mythology about deer hunting where if you find
these mylar balloons that float around in the
air, they will actually catch the currents that
bucks use to smell predators or... other deer
or wolves stuff like that or coyotes whatever's
up in the area but um it turned out to be some
kind of a like white jug so it wasn't what i
thought it was but that completely turned us
looking left instead of paying attention to the
right side right of the logging road right and
uh Yeah, so you went over and you took a closer
look at it, and you were like, yeah, it's just
some kind of plastic jug or something. So we
got distracted by that, and then we got back
on the path and started walking. And then we
were trying to find that stone pile. At first,
we got a little bit... I mean, we were getting
a little bit closer to it and then we would seem
to go away a little bit. It wasn't quite as drastic
as last time at all. It didn't take us that long
to find it. But at one point we were, I think
it was on one side of, we were near the, we were
kind of near the bottom of a ravine, right? Where
there was like that. We were kind of at like
where the ravine would come down. and meet with
a logging road so we like kind of got brought
to the left side of that ravine and started walking
up where the um i guess you would call it gps
on the picture itself was bringing us but the
signal kept going in and out and we would lose
it so i'd have to get out of the picture and
then go back in to get it to restart that tracking
of where the spot was. So it took a while, but
I wasn't giving up. I finally had said to you
that we had gotten so far up on that left side
of the ravine that I had told you, if you don't
want to walk down the one side of the ravine,
wait for me. I'll go down and check out and see
if it brings me to where it was. that's when
uh i walked up on what i thought was the rock
pile but um to my surprise it was actually another
rock pile yep exactly kind of kind of like really
confused me but i had shouted to you that i found
it and then you had come over to where i was
yep Yeah, you were out of my view. And then you
started yelling. You were like, it's over here.
I found it. Follow my voice. So I got over to
you. There was a very small, like remnants of
a little, very narrow stream, like a couple of
feet wide, maybe at the bottom of the ravine.
And then not far from that was where that stone
pile was. And I think at first we kind of thought
that that was the one in your picture. Yeah,
and I kind of brought the picture back up to
try to look at it and put the trees into perspective
of what the picture was showing us, and they
didn't match. Right. So I had said to you, I
said, I don't think this is the one. I said,
I think this is another one. Yep. And it turned
out it was another one. But this pile that we
found was pretty sizable. I think you measured
it out. It was about like, was it 18 by 16 feet
or somewhere around there? So that's what was
visible. Yeah, 18 by 16. You measured the farthest
rocks out from the sides of it across like in
a... northwest and a east -west kind of thing
there to kind of like triangulate it like and
get a good measurement on how wide it was yeah
yep and um yeah it was a lot of you know um mostly
larger rocks um but they they varied in size
but they're mostly rocks that you know you'd
take It would take two hands to lift them up.
It was probably about three to four feet high.
So it was, I mean, it's a substantial pile of
rocks when you do actually come upon it. It doesn't,
it looks completely out of place. It's not really
level ground. On one side, you know, on the one
side, the ravine is going up, going up the hill.
and then yeah so that would be the right side
that would be the right side of the ravine goes
up from that uh south side of the rock pile yep
so um and then you know it's uh it was kind of
strange because you were taking video and photos
of it and talking to me and i'm kind of looking
at you but i noticed like past you something
up the ravine a little further away from us maybe
i don't know 50 30 50 yards away yup yeah and
i just kind of smiled and i said there's another
pile and you're like huh i'm like there's another
pile behind you and uh i said turn around and
he turned around you really couldn't see it at
first and that's had to kind of like show you
i'm like right there i said i'll be right back
i'm gonna walk over there and sure enough i have
walked over there and i had seen where the picture
started lining up with the trees in the background
so it was like okay this is the real pile right
Yep. So, so yeah, so I finished taking pictures.
The one of the first pile we found, the one thing
that was odd about that first pile was that right
at the, right at the top of it, it looked like
someone had fairly recently moved a rock out
of, out of position. So I guess, I mean, I would
guess that people. are down there i don't know
why someone would go and remove the rock from
that pile but this was um i mean it's not it's
it's a fairly remote area but it's i guess it's
not so remote and it's not so difficult to get
to where yeah people might come upon it and um
decide to move the rocks around for whatever
reason um but yeah you went you went and then
uh walked up and you you found the uh found the
other rock pile and i followed you over there
and that was the one from the photo so once again
we found a pretty significant like rock pile
and then but that wasn't even what we were looking
for and then we found this um found the second
one which was the original one that you were
looking for in the first place I had actually
brought up the pictures from our last visit and
kind of put them on the map as a pin, a picture
pin, I guess you would say it's called. When
I looked at them, they are directly north and
south from each other, both those piles and that
other pile that we found the last trip. Right.
Yeah, they all seem to be lined up in some kind
of arrangement that was intentional. At least
that's what it looks like. And so, yeah, so the
second pile we found, which was the original
one we were looking for, was a little bit bigger
than the other one, probably closer to 20 feet
by 20 feet and a little bit taller, between four
and five feet tall. And these are, like I said,
these are just very prominent piles of rocks
that you, that you come upon and they don't,
they, they're just, they don't make sense being
right there. Um, if it was, if it, if it was
a farmer that was moving it or, or if it was
a rock pile from farming or, or, you know, land
moving or, or even from logging, if, if for some
reason logging is done and they decide to. pile
the rock somewhere it just didn't seem like a
place that it just didn't seem like there was
any reason for those piles of rocks to be there
yeah and it's kind of strange that the whole
area there has no other rocks right yep just
like the uh just like the the boulders and the
the pile that we found the other time but what
was interesting to note is that both of the piles
the first pile we found was right next to that
little stream right at the bottom of the ravine
and then the second pile which was the original
pile we were looking for was also within a few
feet of that little stream but it seemed like
the stream and it was it's hard to see with everything
overgrown but it looked to me like that little
stream almost ended right there next to that
second rock pile. Right. I would have to agree
with that. I think it kind of like there were
no remnants of a stream beyond that second original
pile. Yep. So it was kind of just dry earth.
Yeah. And that's, that's where I, you know, and
if I'm speculating, I'm thinking maybe at one
time there was a active spring there. You do
find that ancient earthworks and stone piles
and stuff are found near springs coming from
the ground. So it's possible that there was an
actual spring that was feeding that little stream
at one time. And that's what we were seeing.
And maybe both of these piles were put, the one
pile was put right at the... right at the source
of the spring and then the other one was placed
um whatever whatever 30 50 50 yards away something
like that right and you could tell that both
of those piles were actually hand stacked there
was no question about that yeah yeah absolutely
it didn't it didn't look um it i mean it looked
old it looked like you know some of it had kind
of you know maybe it settled maybe it had kind
of kind of collapsed but um but it did look it
looked stacked it looked like it was put there
intentionally and again there's no other stones
around the area um i i don't want to say 100
no stones like you run into one here and then
you know right 100 feet away you might see one
laying on the ground here so it's not completely
devoid of rocks or stones but you don't but they're
not really prominent and then you just get to
this one spot where all of the stones are right
and it's kind of crazy that when you find a stone
up there by itself it's usually rather large
and it always seems to turn out to be some kind
of quartz like mixed matrix stone which is funny
yeah but yeah Yep. So, yeah, we were, you know,
right away, you know, in a very short amount
of time, we show up and already we're getting
surprised by Connecticut Hill once again, looking
for the one pile. I kind of felt really deflated
because the way I felt was we were taking an
awful long time to find that original pile. And
when it just wasn't. coming right up to it i
felt like we weren't gonna find it again yeah
yeah we did get to a point where i i think i
did say um you know maybe i should maybe i should
say out loud well we might as well call it a
day because when i did that last time we ended
up finding something shortly after that right
but uh yeah we did look around for a little while
it didn't take us quite as anywhere near as long
like last time i think it It took us at least
an hour or more to finally find something in
the woods, probably longer. It was actually surprising
to me how far away those other mounds were from
where we were the last time around. Yeah. Yeah,
it's quite a ways away. Because when we left,
we had to, I mean, I suppose we didn't have to,
but we ended up driving over to get closer to
the other pile. Um, so, so yeah, so we, we found
these two piles. We, you know, I took some pictures
and some videos. I'll be putting those up on
the, uh, on the website and I'll put them in
the description for the podcast. And we got a,
we got a good look. We got our fill there and
decided to trek back out. back up the logging
road that we came in on so we could go and look
for the other stone pile or stone complex, whatever
you want to call it, that we've seen last time.
But on our way out, as we're walking, you noticed
something to the left of us, which was right.
I was actually talking to you as we were leaving
and looking over. To the left of you. So to my
surprise, there it was about half halfway up
the logging road from where we parked the car.
Yet another stone mound in the background of
you. And I said, you're not going to believe
this, but turn around. And you said, my God,
another one. Yep. And and yeah, and this one
was. was um right across from that white plastic
jug that we had been looking at earlier so when
we when we came in we were so distracted looking
at this white thing out in the middle of the
woods we didn't even notice that there was a
stone pile 30 feet behind us like right next
to us we were walking walking by it's it wasn't
that far off of the uh off of the logging road
like maybe 30 feet or so like you can see it
it just goes to show you how turned around you
can get up there and you know it it's kind of
like some credence to the stories of people saying
they felt kind of like out of place or whatever
they say they you know happens to them but it's
it was right there the whole time yeah And part
of me, I mean, I think I said something at the
time. I kind of felt like the place was playing
a trick on us. Like when we came in, it was like,
okay, we're not going to let them see this pile
at first. We're going to make them walk right
past it, and then they'll see it on their way
out. For sure. But this pile was a little bit
different because it had a lot more, it seemed
like, flat stones that were part of. you know
that were part of the structure and the flat
stones were stacked along the edges it looked
like it was um i mean at least from what we could
see maybe the other ones had the same kind of
stacking of the stones underneath and we couldn't
see it as well but this one along the edges you
could see very very you know consciously placed
stacks of of these um ladder stones you know
maybe a couple feet wide um three four inches
thick or varying in thickness that were just
kind of stacked up uh around the around the outer
edges of the stone pile so that that pile was
actually like southwest of where the other piles
were yep and uh i i don't think it was as big
i think it was probably a little bit smaller
the only yeah it was it was about the size of
the other one i think it was only like 18 by
19 or something similar to the other measurements
and i've seen a lot of uh old house foundations
and the way these stones were stacked you wouldn't
put a house on it first of all it was round you
know it wasn't square And then you had the mound.
It was a mound. It wasn't like a flat foundation
like most of those you would find in an old house
foundation like the old schoolhouse I showed
you. Right. But I could also see where if people
had walked past it and they kind of glanced toward
it and you see the corner of it and you see some
of the stones are stacked up, it almost If you're
just glancing at it, it would kind of look like
an old foundation or an old, you know, stone
fence or something like that because they were
stacked. But then when you get close to it, no,
it didn't look like a foundation at all. No.
And what I found funny is I've been through that
logging road. I can't tell you how many times
and just never seen it. Yeah. Yeah. It's almost
like it's hidden in plain sight. It's almost
like, like I said, the spirit of the mountain
or the spirit of the hills or whatever, just
kind of kind of make your mind play tricks on
you or sort of distract you from from noticing
it. But once once we noticed it was like, how
could we possibly miss this? And the only thing
I could think of is I really did a good job at.
distracting our attention to that white uh object
in the woods there the jug or whatever it was
yeah yeah and yeah i mean if you are you know
if you're if you're further away from these piles
they're not super easy to see just because they
they're they kind of camouflage they're you know
they're overgrown there's trees around them so
they're not super easy to see but this one compared
to where the logging road was it was uh it was
right there it was obvious yeah and the other
thing i noticed is it wasn't as grown over as
the other two had like ground cover growing on
it you know yep but it did have a it had like
were there some bees or hornets or something
living in it oh yeah yeah it was a hornet for
sure it was right on the top of it yeah which
is which was peculiar too right um So, yeah.
So now at this point, you know, we, we went there
looking for one and we found another one. Then
we found the one we're looking for. And then
we found a third mound and that's the story could
end there. Yeah. It's unreal. It's really unreal.
It's yep. And it just, that place is just, there's
just surprises every time, every time you go
up there. And I'm sure, like, when we were walking
up the logging road going back to the truck,
we had talked about how they were logging up
there. And I left a lot of the logs laying around.
And now the shrubbery is growing through all
that. So you can't even walk through some parts
of the woods. So there's real no telling. There
could be a lot of these mounds hidden up there.
yeah for sure especially yeah especially in those
in those areas that are grown because it's not
trees it's just it's just you know vegetation
overgrowth yeah it's overgrowth but it's tall
you know it's 10 15 feet tall or whatever and
and um just very thick like you i don't even
know how you would move through there so yeah
there could be There could be all kinds of all
kinds of other mounds or or structures or whatever
in there. And you wouldn't even know. But so,
yeah, it was it was it was just we were just
it was just a morning full of surprises. And
and so we we checked out the final that final
pile. I got pictures of that and video of that
that I'll put up and. Then we headed over to
one of the mark trails where there's a trailhead.
I don't want to tell people exactly where it
is, but there's a trailhead that we needed to
get to to go back and find the original stone
works that we found the first time we went up
there. And wouldn't you know it, the woods had
yet another surprise and journey for us. Yeah.
Made that difficult to find. Yes, for sure. So
we got to the trailhead. We started on the trail.
You know, I had kind of in my head like, okay,
we're going to go up this way and we come around
the bend here. That's where it's gonna be and
I had and when we had the last time we were there
when we had When we had found the stone pile
then left and we made our way back to the main
trail I had kind of noticed I noticed there was
a like a downed tree there that had that the
state had come through and they cut off the ends
of the branches of the tree cause they had been
laying across the marked trail. So I was looking
for that. That was kind of the, that was kind
of the landmark we were keeping an eye out for.
And yeah, we didn't, we, we, I don't know how
it happened. I don't know how we got so off.
trail of where we were going i mean i think at
one point the trail branched off and maybe we
took one branch when we should have taken the
other do you remember at all yeah i mean when
you think about where we were and where we were
heading it just didn't um we had come the opposite
ways the last time from the other parking area
so this parking area brought us in a completely
different way but in my mind it should have been
shorter but it sure seemed a lot longer once
we were out there yeah it was either that or
we were tired from walking down the logging road
and coming back out of that ravine is enough
to you know you're talking that's the highest
points in there so right you're walking 2200
feet up and down mount mountain ravines and It'll
tire you out, that's for sure. Yeah, that's true.
And I definitely felt it for a couple of days
afterward. But I agree, like when we went in,
I knew it was going to take a while. It just
seemed like it was taking way longer than I had
anticipated. Just from looking at the trail maps
and kind of seeing what the distance was and
knowing, you know, how far it should have been.
It just seemed like it was. taking way longer
than it should have but eventually we got onto
the trail that we needed to be on and saw that
um and i found that we saw that uh down tree
with the with the cut branches i was like okay
here's the spot this is the spot so we need to
just uh they take a left and head down the ravine
and and look for the uh and look for the boulders
um and the hill had other ideas and hit it quite
well from us again yes once again we headed down
and yeah we're going and we're okay i think it's
it's got to be over this way and it wasn't over
this way and then we end up i don't know it was
just just walking around it i i knew we were
going to find it eventually um just because once
you do see it um it's you know you you can see
it from from a ways away and there was the one
what i was hoping to see was the one boulder
out of all those boulders there was that one
that's just whitish color that probably has some
quartz in it um and i was hoping to see that
so big you know that rock is so big compared
to most of the rocks in that area yeah you would
think you could see that a mile away Yeah. But
the, that hill hide stuff, it's kind of ridiculous.
Yeah, it does. It does. It's hard to, you know,
it's just, it's, it's a combination of the overgrowth
and then, you know, the unevenness of the, of
the ravine. So there's like little hills and
little, little, uh, you know, slopes and, um,
but eventually, uh, I think we were off, we were
off trail. Like we're, We're going way off trail.
Yeah. You know, we're not we're not sticking
to a regular path through the woods or anything.
You're traipsing through brush and down trees
and all that. So it's kind of exhausting. Yeah,
that's that's for sure. It ended up ultimately,
I think we were out in the woods for about five
hours, I think a little bit longer than five
hours. So uh, so yeah, so finding this one like
finding the first three bounds It was it was
challenging but it wasn't quite as it wasn't
quite it didn't take as long as As it did to
find these again, even though we had found these
Even though we kind of knew where that we thought
we kind of knew where they were but eventually
we found the found the original I keep calling
it the original. I don't know what else to call
it. But we found the arrangements of stones,
the stone pile, and the seven boulders lined
up. So I got some. I was glad to finally get
you to the original pile that I had in the picture.
Yeah. Let alone find, what, three other items
out there? besides yep so uh so yeah we found
the we found the uh the seven boulder arrangement
whatever um i was taking some more pictures and
it's still there's still a lot of a lot of overgrowth
and a lot of brush um at this time of year uh
so but as i'm as i was taking a video of it doing
a video walk around and and trying to get a better
some, some better records of the spot. And I
was listening, I was watching the video and,
and that's right near the end of the video. I
can hear your voice in the distance. You're like,
Hey, I think I found some treasure over here
or something like that. And then, and I looked
up and I'm looking in the direction where you
were and there's like three more boulders in
a line. That I had never seen the first time
we were there. Yeah, it's so crazy. And then
to find those old artifacts that were just laying
on the top of the ground, like it looked almost
like a jar lid that you would do like pickles
in or something. Yep. And then there was the
old ball mason jar that was cracked out. Right.
And didn't have a bottom. and also a shovel just
a flat flat shovel like for shoveling coal or
something but i mean you wouldn't expect that
those things to be out there and some other rusty
metal parts that were just laying there but it
definitely someone was there way long time ago
yeah yep and uh So yeah, there, there was the
seven boulders and there was probably another,
I think three or four, you know, prominent, not,
not as big as the big, big white one, but prominent
boulders lying in a straight line, more stone
piles along with those boulders. And then, then
the spot where you found, found the old artifacts.
Now I did, when we were looking at the, at the
ball jar, which was broken, I noticed that it
had a seam on it. And I remembered that there
was a certain timeframe when old glass jars and
bottles, my grandfather used to collect bottles.
He used to like dig up old bottles. And I think
he was the one who told me that there was a,
you can tell if a bottle or a jar is super old
if there's no seam in it, because that meant
it was blown back when glass was blown. And then
the ones with the seam in it means a mold was
used. broken jar that you found was made in a
mold because there was a seam around it and i
looked it up and ball jars started being made
in molds around 1895 so gosh so whenever those
whenever those um yeah so so it had to be after
1895 whenever those uh whenever the At least
the jar ended up being there, which kind of tracks
with the history of Connecticut Hill, because
they say that that was, you know, late 1800s,
early 1900s was when there was a lot of farming
or attempts at farming going on up there and
a lot of logging. But, you know, the farming
ended up being unsuccessful. So so the people
kind of kind of. beat it out of there and uh
never went back up but you know all the old um
all the old foundations and that old schoolhouse
those are all from that there's actually my neighbor
had told me there's a old coal mine up there
as well and uh he said it's still open so it
would have been really cool to have him come
out there to show us that quartz ledge and the
coal mine yeah and uh some of the other things
he might know but uh that that might be a third
sometime right right um so yeah so you've you
found the ball jar uh the old shovel which you
know i but it kind of makes me wonder like how
long will a shovel last like in the elements
out in the middle of nowhere before it completely
rusts away and this was like half rusted so yeah
and this this was the shovel that you know it
was kind of like it looked to me to be like a
coal shovel that was just used for like shoveling
coal because it didn't have a speed end on it
it was just yeah flat and then you got to figure
when I saw it there was no wooden handle so that's
long deteriorated and gone right it had some
age to it and it was quite It was quite thick.
I don't know if you realize that it was pretty
thick. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. It was, uh, and then
there was the, the lid that it looked like it
was a ceramic lid. That was, you know, like,
like you said, that was used to, you know, for
an old crock or something like that. Yeah. That's
what I had said when I saw the shovel and the
ball jar and then that crock lit. I was like,
I think I found a treasure, but there's no treasure
left. Right. Right. But it does make me wonder,
you know, to be completely honest, you know,
seeing the rock piles and seeing those boulders
all in a line, I can... I can see where someone
would say that's just the remains of an old stone
fence or an old stone pile. That there is a long,
long time ago, you know, somebody purchased the
land and tried to push all the rocks into one
area so they could farm the rest of the land.
And maybe that's why, you know, there's old...
you know pieces of shovels and old jars there
because it was inhabited at one time um so it
did you know i i when i saw that there was you
know signs of human habitation there i kind of
say okay well you know maybe maybe uh maybe it's
possible that it was just an old stone wall but
i but i still have the question of why move boulders
of that size into a line like that they're real
huge i mean if you know normally when you see
these stone walls that are out in the woods or
something like that they're still stacked because
no one's going to go back there and say well
i don't want this stone fence here let's get
it out of here it moves them they stay there
forever you know yep so but there was really
I mean, when you look at the way the rocks are
and where they are, there was no semblance of
a fence. No. So it's hard to say. No. And if
it was, and again, if it was a fence, you know,
that had collapsed, then, you know, then there
would be, then it would, they would be collapsed
in a long line. There would be stones all along.
the whole path that are collapsed but it wasn't
like that it was like a boulder and a stone pile
around it and then an area where there's no stones
or maybe one or two you know 15 20 feet and then
there's another stone pile and another boulder
um so it didn't really it doesn't look like um
it really doesn't look like a fence to me uh
yeah it's definitely an interesting spot for
sure yeah it's it's there's a story there it's
just it's hidden with the time of the hill you
know yeah yeah for sure and it's it's uh yeah
that's exactly what it is it's a it's a story
it involves you know now that we saw those you
know the signs that there were people there you
know people were involved people were around
this this stone structure at one time for whatever
reason um i think that was kind of wasn't that
kind of near an old stream not far from yeah
well the stream is down into the ravine that's
over that way yeah but it's it's not like it's
in the ravine there you know what i mean it's
kind of on top where we found that stuff right
it's actually like a flat area which The way
it is, it's kind of kooky because then it drops
off and then goes down to where that creek is.
Okay. Yeah. I couldn't remember if there was
a little small feeder, like a little feeder creek
or something next to it. You'll have to pinpoint
it and use that topo map you got from me to kind
of pinpoint everything and lay it out on that
map and kind of take another picture of it. yeah
for sure um yeah and maybe if uh if you can send
me the uh metadata i took a bunch of pictures
i didn't get it the location wasn't working for
me at that area either so um so bizarre that
that's the same thing with how google earth was
clouding it out like you couldn't get a good
read on it yeah yeah And, and again, like you
said, like we, we, when we were looking for it,
it was, you know, it was just so hard to find
it and just hard to get there. And then even
on our way out when we were like, okay, well,
you know, we're done for the day. We just got
to walk back up the hill. We get to the path
and we walk, follow the path and we'll be right
back to the truck. And it did not work that way.
No, it wound up being almost an hour long journey
just to get out of there. Yeah. Which was, which
was not what I had expected at all. No, no, it
shouldn't. It shouldn't have. I mean, if we had
taken the normal, yeah, it shouldn't have taken
more than 30 minutes probably to get out of there.
Um, but we, uh, it almost seemed shorter to go
back to the other place that we had parked with
all the horse flies. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It probably
would have probably would have been. But, um,
yeah, man, that place, it just, it's really easy
to get turned around up there. Um, I don't know
if it's, you know, I don't know if it's some
kind of, you know, weird, you know, rankster
energy that is emanating from the mountain that
kind of makes people get lost. Or if it's just,
just because it's woods and because it's, you
know, tough terrain that it's easy to get lost.
so many times where i think i know where we are
it's like okay yeah this is i know what this
is and so crazy right so we just have to go up
here you get glimpses of memories of have i been
in this spot before yeah yeah or yeah and then
you go up a little further it's like no this
isn't where i was or was it and it was just that's
just what it was all day like um And the other
thing was I had no idea that they had logged
that whole other section of that trail. I didn't
know that had happened. Oh, right. Yep. Where
we had come into that clearing and I was like,
well, that's a view that we haven't seen. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, there is logging that still goes
on up there all the time in different areas.
But, um, but yeah, it was, uh, another, um, another
successful, I guess you would call it adventure
up on Connecticut Hill, um, finding way more
than we thought we were going to find, um, lots
of surprises around every corner and, uh, and
yeah, anything, uh, anything to add to that?
Yeah, it just kind of makes you stop and think,
like, what else could be up there? Yeah. Yep.
Oh, and what were you telling me about how there's
that area where the hunters just seem to never
go to hunt? Yeah, like the parking area, the
road bisects. and then it goes around in a giant
square and then there's another road that goes
back out so for some reason all the time when
people park there they always head north i've
never seen hunters come out of the south side
of that road ever yeah always go to the north
side for whatever reason it is i mean i've even
caught myself just not wanting to go south of
that road that that we got on there and parked
but it's it's everyone even my neighbor who's
been here all his life he doesn't go that way
either yeah so very very peculiar just something
that's added to the mystery of that place yeah
maybe uh this this deer hunting season i'll wind
up walking south and see what else maybe i'd
find something else Yeah, maybe you'll find the
reason nobody wants to go there. I hope it's
not a bad reason. Right. Yeah, that's just really
weird that nobody, you know, I don't want to
say nobody, nobody, but nobody seems to want
to go there. Yeah, they just don't hunt that
side. And what's funny is if you think about
it, there's a road, another road parallel to
that one. And if you keep walking, you'll eventually
come to that road if you ever got lost. Yeah.
So it's actually safer to hunt that south side
than the north because you saw what you're up
against to the north. You got the mountain just
goes straight up over there. Yeah. Yeah. It's
a heck of a walk. And if you get tired or you
have a, you know, some kind of health condition
and you get in trouble, you're going to be in
trouble. you know big trouble trying to get out
of there oh yeah for sure for sure all right
um i guess that covers it unless you have anything
else no i don't no i think that's about it i
think it was great that we found more than i
expected i wanted to only show you one mound
i thought and wound up being you know a lot more
than that to my surprise yeah yeah to my surprise
as well that place is just full of surprises
um yeah and uh hunting season's coming up so
i'm i'm not gonna be out there wandering the
woods anytime soon but um while you're out there
i'm sure you'll be you'll be uh yeah i'll be
keeping my eyes open keeping your eyes open for
for uh anything strange that you wander across
and, um, maybe someday in the future, who knows,
we'll, we'll go and we'll find that, uh, that,
uh, legendary quartz ledge and be able to tell
that story too. But, uh, sounds great. All right,
cool, Rick. Well, uh, well, thanks for doing
this and, uh, yeah, thanks for doing this. You
got it. I hope everybody enjoys it. Yeah, me
too. Well, that's it for this time around. I
hope you enjoyed it. Thanks so much for listening.
And if you have any thoughts on any of the topics
in this episode, please let me know. And remember
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