Ellis Property Rock Piles

Judge Ellis phoned this office back in the fall (1998) to ask about the origin of some rock piles he had seen on his property. He had read articles about the stone mounds in Gwinnett Co. I told him we would like to see his property after the leaf cover had fallen. Therefore, I phoned him in early December to schedule a visit.

On Dec. 22, we met Judge Ellis in Covington and drove to his property. Weather conditions were overcast, cool (45 F), but no rain; the time was mid day. We went to two areas where the judge recalled seeing rock piles. The first was near a hunter's shack (Site #1, map #1). Next to the shack was a pile, not stack, of rocks. It was about 12 feet in diameter and 3-4 feet high. The pile had been robbed of stones for a fire ring, support piers, and other campsite uses. This pile was on the crest of slope so Dave and I spread out to look for other piles. Next to the shack on the other side was a maintained Ga. Power Co. line corridor where no piles were seen. Therefore, we went down slope 25 or 30 yards. Visibility was o.k. for seeing rock piles but the ground surface was obscured by vegetation. Only the one rock pile was observed in this area.

We drove to the next area where the judge had seen rock piles (Site #2, map #1). We were guided to an assemblage of rock piles on a southeast facing slope of 2%. One of the piles was quite large with a diameter of maybe 30 feet or so and 2-3 feet high. The others were smaller, 3-6 feet in diameter and 2-4 feet high. Two piles were observed as having remnants of rocks being stacked as opposed to piled. The remainder are best described as piles. Timbering and other past activities have erased all evidence of form of assemblage other than piling. At Site #2, we saw about 20 piles in various states of disarray across a slope.

At two other locations, sites #3 and #4 (map #1) apparent rock piles were seen. However, no time was spent walking these areas due to the lack of equipment and time. All of the slopes of the property are severely eroded. At one ofthe loading dock clearings (see map #1) we looked for artifacts. Most of the top soil had eroded from this ridge crest. Clay subsoils were visible everywhere surface was exposed. Also, while walking the property only a couple of instances of rocks placed in the erosion ditches as either soil control devices or natural outcropping were observed. Near the crest of the topographic rise on the west side of the property along the entrance road some remnants of farm terracing were observed. On the lower slopes no evidence of terracing was noticed.