Calais Observatory - A Different Kind Of Rock Edifice

http://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/survey_marks/heritage_trail/welcome.html

http://www.calaisalumni.org/History/observatory.htm

http://www.calaisalumni.org/History/astronomic.htm

http://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/releases2005/jul05/noaa05-r460.html

Quoddy Inukshuk

There's something comforting about the inukshuk (or inuksuk if you prefer) that can be seen along all of our highways. These brand new little guys were overlooking the recently opened Trans-Canada Highway at St. David's Ridge east of St. Stephen, N.B.

Have you got a favourite or some other story in stone like a carving on a mountain, peoples names etched in rock, a strange geological formation, or striking grafetti even (our modern version of pictographs)? If so send a photo or two as attachments to an email addressed to artmackay.ilovequoddywild at blogspot.com. The subject is the title so be sure to capitalize it and the body is the text where you tell us all what it is, where it is, and when you saw it.

Who knows what spirits lurk here in Quoddy.

Art

PS. Want to know more about rock art? Check this out at Wikipedia and my very, very favourite site Stone Pages.

History in Stone - Campobello

Three of these images are of a large boulder on the shore near Campobello's Mulholland Point Light. The boulder appears to be sedimentary rock, similar in appearance to the rock found in the Red Beach area. Note in the close-up images of the boulder red arrows pointing to a series of holes and metallic objects. The objects are "feathers and wedges."

Feathers and wedges were used (and still are today) to split stone into smaller pieces. First, using a hammer and hand-held drill, a series of holes were bored into this boulder along a line of desired split. Tight-fitting metal feathers were inserted on either side of each hole. Metal wedges were then inserted between the feathers and, in sequence, the wedges were repeatedly tapped along the line of feathers and wedges until a piece of the boulder broke off along a line of desired split.

It appears that in this last instance the hoped-for split did not take place, as the feathers and wedges remain in the rock. Interestingly, other splits were successful. Other pieces of stone split from this boulder were used in the stone foundation of Mulholland Point Light.

Harold Bailey

Images set in stone, legends, and imagination

With sufficient imagination, the image of the stone stack below Campobello's Friar's Head reveals an the "Old Friar." A Passamaquoddy legend speaks of the stack as a young Indian maiden, turned to stone while awaiting the return of her lover. The cracks in the "Old Friar" indicate he is likely to loose his head in the not too distant future.

Some of Campobello's young people like to call the ledge off the island's Liberty Point "Frog Rock." Some also see the image of a turtle.