<< Feature Articles >> Speaking for the Stones: Challenging Threats to a Hidden Legacy
Submitted by Aluta on Thursday, 27 October 2005 Page Views: 8132
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Werkheiser’s quest and crusade began many years ago in the company of his old friend, an archaeologist named Mark Strohmeyer. Together they visited sites in New England that had been made famous by Barry Fell and Salvatore Trento, sources that usually claimed a European origin for the builders. Over time, however, after reading the book Manitou by Mavor and Dix, and after seeing curious things at the sites, Strohmeyer and Werkheiser became convinced that the sites had been built by indigenous people of the area.
Around the time of his friend Strohmeyer’s tragic death in the 90s, Werkheiser began to notice what appeared to be similar sites in the hills and valleys of his native state of Pennsylvania. The sites were unknown to all but the landowners, for whom they were objects of curiosity and speculation.
A landowner at a site in Northampton County mentioned having spoken with a couple from Berks County who were puzzled over some odd constructions on their property. Werkheiser visited that couple and toured their property with them, getting his first look at the enigma that is Oley Hills. With huge, strangely shaped cairns, boulders looking vaguely like animals, vistas across the valley, and wandering walls linking them all and going nowhere, the site became central to his vision of getting the sites recognised for what they are.
Werkheiser showed Oley Hills to Norman Muller, who studied and mapped it. See here and here . Meanwhile, an interview he did for a Monroe County newspaper in an attempt to save a site there had an outcome that was to change his life and deepen his commitment. See here
In response to Fred‘s interview in the paper, a descendant of the indigenous Lenape people, Mr. Chuck Demund, spoke to a reporter to corroborate Fred’s claim that the sites were connected with and sacred to the Indians . Contact with Demund and other members of his group, called the Lenape Nation, gave new strength and urgency to Werkheiser’s quest. In the middle of the joy and excitement he felt at gaining this important support , he couldn’t help but wish that Strohmeyer had lived to see it happen.
In fact, Strohmeyer’s memory and inspiration are still strong with Werkheiser, and he rarely talks about the stonework without mentioning his friend’s name. It was in his honor that several years ago, at great expense to himself, Werkheiser organized a conference that brought together non-academic researchers, with academically recognised archaeologists and descendants of the Lenape people, many of whom continue to use some of the sites and practise many of the old ways.
The conference included bus trips to many sites in eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, high points being the ill-fated complex in Monroe County and the many featured grounds at Oley Hills. While it did not have the effect Werkheiser desired of convincing archaeologists, especially one from the Archaeological Conservancy, of the antiquity and indigenous origins of the sites, it stimulated discussion among attendees and provided many memorable moments. Only Werkheiser’s fervent belief in the urgency of his mission to preserve the sites could have made it happen.
At a ceremony later that year, the Lenape Nation honored both him and his friend and fellow researcher Don Repsher for their work and dedication. Not long after, research turned up that showed Werkheiser himself to have Lenape blood, cementing his relationship with the People and allowing him to participate in their activities.
The archaeological community continued to insist on proof of antiquity before moving to preserve sites, no matter how large or anomalous, defying the logic that would call for preserving them until research could be done to help us understand them. Galvanized by their recalcitrance and timidity, Werkheiser and Repsher set about examining huge quantities of historical writings by Europeans who reached the area early. They looked for passages referring to native stonework.
The research was fruitful. They found such references in the writings of many men, including such notables as William Penn, Thomas Jefferson, and Noah Webster. Some of the writers describe several kinds of stone features and some list multiple sites around the area, most of which are now gone. That this much evidence languished disregarded in historic annals while important sites continued to be destroyed, is a wrong that can never be remedied.
Meanwhile, a resort company developed the property containing the Monroe County site, and, despite a promise to preserve it, preserved in the end only a small section, destroying standing stones, cairns, and effigy constructions that were essential to its significance And now, as if to mock Werkheiser’s lifelong efforts, the property that includes most of the Oley Hills site has been put on the open market by its owners.
Werkheiser has pleaded with legislators and communicated with local conservancies, seeking any way to preserve the site long enough for it to be recognised as the outstanding heritage site that it is, but so far, no one is interested. The surrounding area is being developed rapidly due to its proximity to Philadelphia and New York City, and it is possible the property will be bought and bulldozed in short order.
Ironically, the recognition of the sites as a class now seems inevitable. Thanks to Werkheiser, research has been compiled; Oley Hills has been mapped and measured and many people now know how many of these sites exist and have seen their extraordinary features. Increased information on mound sites in the Ohio watershed, shows telling similarities with the stone sites, providing more evidence that these sites have a native origin.
While many areas consisting only of cairns remain hidden in the woods of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York State, few sites that he has found resemble the complexes in Monroe County and at Oley Hills. The question haunts him: will the great sites disappear before we get to admire and understand them?
Werkheiser shakes his head at the thought that his efforts may get the sites recognised too late to gain their preservation. In a nation where a three-hundred-year-old house may be considered a historic site, he can’t understand why we allow this deeper legacy to be lost forever.
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