BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN TZID:America/New_York X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/New_York BEGIN:VEVENT UID:22@newtonconservators.org DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20021119T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20021119T210000 DTSTAMP:20190202T135142Z URL:https://newtonconservators.org/events/stone-by-stone/ SUMMARY:Stone by Stone DESCRIPTION:The Magnificant History in New England's Stone Walls\nRobert Th orson\nGeologist\n\nAlthough there are old stone walls located across the United States\, onlyin New England do they rise to the status of landforms . Laid end-to-end\, these walls\, built mostly between 1750 and 1850\, wou ld have encircled the globe ten times and New England's landscape\, then a nd now\, would simply not be the same without them. According to Robert M. Thorson\, professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Connec ticut\, the stone wall is the key that links the natural history and the h uman history of New England. "Although most of these stone walls are crumb ling\, they connect a magnificent scientific and cultural story about the forces that formed their stones\, the movements that brought them to the s urface\, the glacial tide that broke them apart\, and about the humans tha t built them\," Thorson notes. "The archetypal stone walls of New England- -primitive\, mortar-free\, and 'tossed' rather than carefully laid--give u s a clock by which we can judge the passage of almost unimaginable time."\ n\nIn his new book\, STONE BY STONE: The Magnificent History in New Englan d's Stone Walls (Walker &\; Company\, 2002)\, Thorson begins with an ex ploration of rock formation and transportation and moves to cultural facto rs\, such as deforestation and farming\, that allowed for the harvesting o f heavy stones. Like Russian dolls\, Thorson notes\, stones layer time\, w ith their smallest elements reflecting the longest spans. "Each stone has its own story\," he says\, "that link geological history to the early Amer ican experience."\n\nFirst and foremost\, Thorson notes\, walls were not f ences that separated neighbors nor were they a monument to thriftiness and hard work. "Stone walls were a necessary response to the environmental ch ange from forest to farm." The ecological catastrophe of colonial farming\ , he says\, caused frost-heaving on compacted soils\, brought stones to th e surface\, and created rain-washed refule that could not biodegrade. Thes e fieldstones were carted away by hand or with the assistance of oxen and draft horses\, and seldom further than necessary. Stacked upward\, the elo ngated piles of stones created permanent reminders and enduring symbols. T he walls\, Thorson says\, draw our attention to the edge of what the farme r really cared about--the fields we can no longer see. "By studying stone walls\, you'll see the unending struggle of Yankee farmers\," he says. "Yo u'll find signs of the melting and carving that have shaped the earth. You 'll see what underlies all life."\n\nA lively examination of stone wall ty pes\, their function and structure\, their construction\, and their collap se\, STONE BY STONE is nothing less than the story of how New England was formed and is a fascinating picture of the land the Pilgrims settled.\n\nA bout the Speaker \nRobert M. Thorson is a Professor of Geology and Geophys ics at the University of Connecticut\, where he holds a joint appointment in the Department of Anthropology. Dr. Thorson received a Ph. D. in Geolog y from the University of Washington in Seattle for his research on glaciat ion and earthquake hazards of the Pacific Northwest. He holds an M. S. deg ree in Geology from the University of Alaska\, granted for his work on Pal eolithic archaeological site in the Alaska Range. His B. S. degree is in E arth Science Teaching from Bemidji State College in Minnesota.\n\nDr. Thor son began his career as a field assistant with the U. S. Geological Survey \, where he participated in projects involving geologic hazards\, glaciolo gy\, and paleontology in Alaska. In the late 1970s and early 1980s\, he wo rked as a Research Associate for the archaeological projects funded by the National Geographic Society and the National Park Service. In 1984\, he d irected the first detailed excavation of a frozen mammoth in Alaska\, and has since dissected New England's largest sand dune\, built by ice-age win ds\, and most of the wetlands in the colonial town of Lebanon\, Connecticu t.\n\nAs a visiting faculty fellow in the Department of History at Yale Un iversity\, Thorson participated in an interdisciplinary environmental semi nar that helped forge the ideas in STONE BY STONE. Later\, he spent a year -long sabbatical leave at Dartmouth College where he had access to the arc hives of early New England agricultural history and to the U. S. Army's Co ld Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory. During his leave\, he led an Earthwatch expedition to examine the walls of a pioneering homestead in New Hampshire and since then\, he has spent many years studying walls in the forests of New England and observing them from his kitchen window in C onnecticut. His latest sabbatical was to Chile\, where he worked on seismi c hazards mapping\, and when free\, explored stone walls. CATEGORIES:Lectures LOCATION:Newton Free Library\, 330 Homer Street\, Newton Centre\, MA\, Unit ed States GEO:42.3358776;-71.2080211 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=330 Homer Street\, Newton C entre\, MA\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=Newton Free Library: geo:42.3358776,-71.2080211 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York X-LIC-LOCATION:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20021027T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR