Mysterious West Virginia rock cairns Native American ritual site?

A complex of 53 mysterious rock cairns is found on a rural West Virginia farm in the Appalachian hills. Was it an Native American Indian ritual site?

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• cairns
• mysterious
• Indians
• West Virginia
• Appalachia
• Appalachian
• Imbrogno
• native american
• American Indian
• Charleston Gazette
• initiation
• ritual
• vision quest

[douglaseye]

No need to shout, Tangerinez77. We were careful when we did this story for the leading paper in West Virginia not to give the location of this precious site in the story other than to say it was located in one of the state's largest counties. State historians have also not given out the locale publicly. For now, its location is fairly well protected. They recently discovered an even larger mysterious rock cairn field at the other end of the state.

[douglaseye]

Interesting. The claims of who built such things are always worthy of investigation and where, necessary, disavowal, depending on the facts. There was one man who claimed that rock carvings in West Virginia were by Irish monks who had sailed to North America hundreds of years before Columbus. Later debunked. But who knows: Phoenicians in Australia? Perhaps these rock cairns are more common than we think as a cultural phenomenon. Thanks for your note.

[vanwags]

@orenman20 I too recently found 1 in PA. I'm in Montour county. Working on getting it documented ASAP.

[Monasukapanough]

I'm trying to think of the best way to give you a picture of this. This would of been a place people go to remember the fallen ones. Ok like at the 9/11 location in new york you have a wall with everyone's name that died. People go to that wall and remember the ones who died on 9/11. Ok...thats basically what this is. Now imagine someone disturbing that 9/11 wall...ok so touching these stones would be the same thing.

[Monasukapanough]

Now here is my idea of why there is so many rocks and piles in one place....a war.  I believe only some major tribal war would have brought that many rocks into use. Think of each of those rocks as a gravestone so to speak....so count how many rocks is piled..and thats how many had died. Or you can even think of each rock as a death certificate.

[Monasukapanough]

It's perfectly fine to be around those rocks..just disturbing the rocks themself is the bad part. These are not the burials grounds. The tribes people themself believe they could die of a very violent death if they touched them rocks....and eventually their tribe itself would be totally destroyed and become extinct. Several even believed touching of them stones was the cause of english attacking them and english being brought by the Woods spirit.

[Monasukapanough]

These rocks are a respect thing. It's to show rememberence and respect for those that had been killed. I can tell you one thing...touching those rocks is VERY BAD. If you would like the exact historical documents as told by the tribes people themself from the old 1600-early 1700 records..let me know and I'll direct you to them.

[Monasukapanough]

I can give you exact historical records of these pertaining to the tribes of the area. Each rock symbolizes a single person. You can count how many people was in a tribe by the number of rocks...you can also tell how many people was killed in a battle from the number of the rocks.

[Monasukapanough]

I know what these are. Your actually not supposed to touch or disturb them. As the story goes...if you disturb them then your tribe and yourself are to be given bad luck and the spirit that overlooks the woods will allow yourself and your tribe to be killed by your enemies.

[Tangerinez77]

@Tangerinez77 I just think the ground it sacred and let it be.

[Bassman97able]

@Tangerinez77 I dont not agree with you see digging rok ahelters and hunting in the feild are both ways of teaching generations of people the history of native americans digging graves and such are wrong but shelters and feilds are okay in my point of veiw

[orenman20]

I found one of these sites in PA. I showed it to an archeologist yesterday and they plan to study it. Remarkably similar to this and in the middle of knowplace.