Stone stacking - Regentrude

[chocolate-chip chooky]

Regentrude, I thought of you recently while on a road trip. I was driving through the red, barren Australian outback and saw stacks of stones here and there. They were piled up from largest to smallest, each with maybe 5 or 6 stones.

It got me wondering if there's a meaning behind this.

I googled a bit and found cairns, but it seems that those are memorials or burial sites. Not what I saw.

I read that sometimes they are used as trail markers, but that certainly wasn't the case where I was either.

It seems that sometimes it is art and sometimes a spiritual symbol or impulse. What I saw didn't really seem artistic, but who am I to judge art? Spiritual or religious? Maybe.

I also came across some articles about stone stacking being a trendy touristy thing, with quite a bit of debate around it. In the middle of such a seemingly untouched landscape, there's suddenly a human-made stack of stones. One writer even likened the stacks to graffiti.

Any thoughts or insight?

 

 

[regentrude]

I have seen cairns as trail markers frequently, or as markers of special sites like passes and summits. I know they exist to mark burial sites (not something I have come across). Sometimes people just make them because they want to. On a site near Telluride, we found a whole little village of cairns, dozens of them in one spot.

I collect photographs of cairns.

[MEmama]

We've always referred to them as inukshuks. They are very common in eastern Canada and parts of New England. They aren't always human likes figures. I think they are pretty. :)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuksuk

Edited October 17, 2018 by MEmama

[wintermom]

47 minutes ago, MEmama said:

We've always referred to them as inukshuks. They are very common in eastern Canada and parts of New England. They aren't always human likes figures. I think they are pretty. ?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuksuk

As far as I know, inukshuks were first used in the Arctic. The inukshuks resemble a human body in their shape and this is intentional. They are a traditional method of marking trails and landmarks as there are very few trees or other land features in the arctic to help orientate travellers and hunters.

Edited October 17, 2018 by wintermom

[MEmama]

1 minute ago, wintermom said:

I wouldn't say "eastern Canada" rather the Arctic. The inukshuks resemble a human body in their shape and this is intentional. They are a traditional method of marking trails and landmarks as there are very few trees or other land features to help orientate travellers and hunters.

 

???

Well they are in the Arctic, yes, but I've never been there. I have lived in eastern Canada, however, and saw them all the time. I see them around here sometimes too.

 

[wintermom]

2 minutes ago, MEmama said:

 

???

Well they are in the Arctic, yes, but I've never been there. I have lived in eastern Canada, however, and saw them all the time. I see them around here sometimes too.

 

They are used more for decoration and less for landmark purposes below the tree line - primarily because they can't be seen from a distance when set up in forests, towns and such.

Edited October 17, 2018 by wintermom

[MEmama]

2 minutes ago, wintermom said:

They are used more for decoration and less for landmark purposes below the tree line - primarily because they can't be seen from a distance when set up in forests, towns and such.

Well yeah. I didn't say they were being used for one purpose or another--that's what the link is for. Just that they a common landscape feature in many places. 

[wintermom]

4 minutes ago, MEmama said:

Well yeah. I didn't say they were being used for one purpose or another--that's what the link is for. Just that they a common landscape feature in many places. 

I believe that the rock stacks mentioned up thread are different than inukshuks. Inukshuks are quite distinct and I was providing information on their origins as a poster from Australia may not have heard of them. 

[Ausmumof3]

I don’t know but on a family holiday one of the family menebers decided they must be markers for good fishing spots.  Until we spotted them in the middle of nowhere miles from the ocean.  Now it’s an ongoing joke every time we see one miles inland or near desert to say “good fishing spot that one!”

my kids have built a few on our travels so you never know you might have spotted one ?

[Ausmumof3]

FWIW in Aus I think they’re just a thing people do like a bottle tree or shoe fence or whatever.  Just bored bogans killing time...

[DesertBlossom]

There's a house in our neighborhood who always has several rather tall carefully stacked cairns in their front yard. I always marvel at the patience it must take to stack them and that punk kids walking down the street haven't knocked them over yet. ?

[Ali in OR]

I remember backpack trips in the Sierras when I was a kid, and my dad pointed them out to me as trail markers. They were typically in areas where a trail goes over a large expanse of granite so there is no obvious dirt path.

[KungFuPanda]

The always had these in the river in Ellicott City (before everything got washed away in the floods.)

 

[chocolate-chip chooky]

8 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

I don’t know but on a family holiday one of the family menebers decided they must be markers for good fishing spots.  Until we spotted them in the middle of nowhere miles from the ocean.  Now it’s an ongoing joke every time we see one miles inland or near desert to say “good fishing spot that one!”

my kids have built a few on our travels so you never know you might have spotted one ?

Did you leave any between Mitchell and Charleville?

[chocolate-chip chooky]

8 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

FWIW in Aus I think they’re just a thing people do like a bottle tree or shoe fence or whatever.  Just bored bogans killing time...

I feel like I should hand in my membership card as an Aussie. What's a bottle tree or shoe fence? I've truly never heard of these ?

Don't worry, though, I'm quite clear on what a Bogan is. But in my day they were called Bevans. ?

[chocolate-chip chooky]

3 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

The always had these in the river in Ellicott City (before everything got washed away in the floods.)

 

I think they're really pretty. So sorry to hear they were lost in a flood.

I wish I'd paused to take a photo of some of the ones I saw. They were quite striking in the dry, red soil. 

[Melissa in Australia]

You and me both

[Ausmumof3]

13 minutes ago, chocolate-chip chooky said:

I feel like I should hand in my membership card as an Aussie. What's a bottle tree or shoe fence? I've truly never heard of these ?

Don't worry, though, I'm quite clear on what a Bogan is. But in my day they were called Bevans. ?

You know when you drive around in the middle of nowhere and then you notice a tree with what looks like real fruit then you take a closer look and you realise it’s had beer bottles placed over the branches!  Or a fence where everyone has hung random odd shoes.  I think there’s even a bra fence or tree somewhere.  Like you’ve been driving 15 hours and there’s nothing to look at then suddenly there it is!

There’s probably a technical name for the phenomena!  

[Ausmumof3]

https://open.abc.net.au/explore/168127

this is the kinda thing I’m talking!

[chocolate-chip chooky]

7 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

You know when you drive around in the middle of nowhere and then you notice a tree with what looks like real fruit then you take a closer look and you realise it’s had beer bottles placed over the branches!  Or a fence where everyone has hung random odd shoes.  I think there’s even a bra fence or tree somewhere.  Like you’ve been driving 15 hours and there’s nothing to look at then suddenly there it is!

There’s probably a technical name for the phenomena!  

Um...no, never seen any of that ?

 

[chocolate-chip chooky]

1 minute ago, Ausmumof3 said:

https://open.abc.net.au/explore/168127

this is the kinda thing I’m talking!

Wow. Thank you for educating me ?

[Melissa in Australia]

I obviously haven’t traveled around Australia enough

[Ausmumof3]

We may have done the Nullarbor one time too many!

[lailasmum]

They're common here in the UK to the point that they're causing issues on beaches where there are so many of them it's an eyesore.  There's one beach we go to that always has a corner of these stacks. People are being encouraged to take them down after they build them so they don't spoil the natural environment. Part of the countryside code leave no trace idea essentially.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

You know when you drive around in the middle of nowhere and then you notice a tree with what looks like real fruit then you take a closer look and you realise it’s had beer bottles placed over the branches!  Or a fence where everyone has hung random odd shoes.  I think there’s even a bra fence or tree somewhere.  Like you’ve been driving 15 hours and there’s nothing to look at then suddenly there it is!

There’s probably a technical name for the phenomena!  

There’s a Shoe Tree at my dd’s college. When touring, if anyone asks, tour guides say something like students throw shoes up there when they pass their first big exam. Dd tells me, “uhhh, no. It’s meant to mark a different type of ‘success’ on campus.” 

[Rachel]

@chocolate-chip chooky they are kind of controversial among the hiking/backpacking crowd in the US, kind of like crockpots and shopping carts on this board.  On some trails where there aren’t many trees, especially out west, they are used as a trail markers. In my part of the country where there are plenty of trees, the cairns tend to be smaller and in creek beds. I’ve seen articles say they disturb creek life and also articles that say that isn’t true. I have a friend who is biologist for the forest service and she does not have a problem with them but some national parks workers on forums are very against them. Some people say they violate Leave No Trace and make a habit of knocking them over. 

I don’t have strong feelings either way. They kind of remind me of temporary art. These were near a campsite from a backpacking trip last spring. They were built in a creekbed and I imagine the next strong rain created a current that knocked them over. 

[CAJinBE]

We saw a lot of these while hiking in Slovenia this summer and on the beaches. It just seemed like something people were doing for fun in places where there were a lot of flat rocks. There isn't any sand on the beaches there so no sand castles. 

[Pawz4me]

The only ones I've seen were in a state park in West Virginia. The trails were poorly marked and we found the stacked stones/cairns to be very helpful.

[Dmmetler]

The big concern I’ve heard is that salamanders live and nest under rocks, and moving the rocks can injure or kill them, particularly eggs and larvae, and for some species that are territorial, make it hard to find suitable habitat. For more terrestrial species, rocks hold the moisture they need, and moving the rocks removes that, even if the rock is put back.  It’s particularly problematic for the Cryptobranchids and plethodontids. If you build these, please avoid moving rocks with lichen or moss on them. Those usually are someone’s home, especially in the Appalachian Mountains, where Salamander biomass is very high. 

[MEmama]

3 hours ago, Rachel said:

@chocolate-chip chooky they are kind of controversial among the hiking/backpacking crowd in the US, kind of like crockpots and shopping carts on this board.  On some trails where there aren’t many trees, especially out west, they are used as a trail markers. In my part of the country where there are plenty of trees, the cairns tend to be smaller and in creek beds. I’ve seen articles say they disturb creek life and also articles that say that isn’t true. I have a friend who is biologist for the forest service and she does not have a problem with them but some national parks workers on forums are very against them. Some people say they violate Leave No Trace and make a habit of knocking them over. 

I don’t have strong feelings either way. They kind of remind me of temporary art. These were near a campsite from a backpacking trip last spring. They were built in a creekbed and I imagine the next strong rain created a current that knocked them over. 

Beautiful! :)

I don't see them as anything different than say, fairy houses, which people build all over the woods and islands here. I love the creativity and whimsy and can't find it in myself to think of it as disturbing nature in any way. It's not as though anything around these parts is truly untouched. I see them as little, benign symbols of admiration for the beauty of nature. That humans created them does not bother me in the least.