Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Paradise

10k looping my trail this morning then it was Chainsaw time.   Finished clearing a small area of Cedar bush in prep for a new fire pit.  Dug out the pit and found about a foot of top soil on top of gravel.  At the top of the gravel there was evidence of a fire.  I read that around 1900 the forest around here was burned to create ashes that were used for ferterlizer.  I also have a suspicion that the land I was clearing was once farmed.   So I came to four possible reasons for the ash and coals a foot under the top soil.

1. Ancient forest fire not too long after the glaciers receded.
2. Around 1850 when the land was settled part of the "clearing of the land involved burning and the ash / coals made it a foot under when the land was cultivated.
3.  It was a result of the burn around 1900 and the reminents maded it a foot under when the land was cultivated.
4.  Someone else had a campfire in the exact same spot as I decided too.

Now what does this have to do with a running blog?  The answer is the fire pit is part of the trail I have been developing and running on this Summer.

1 comment:

Anne said...

I find local settling the land history tremendously interesting.