Treasure Hunting with Rodney in Taconic Mountains (Story 7)
When we came to the old apple orchard, a small cluster of apple trees, in the middle of nowhere, I knew I had to turn my "see-through-the-forest" vision in order to notice any abnormalities in the landscape, such as fresh green homestead vegetation that always grows first or the stonewall's bright white gleams - I already knew that quartz was the predominant rock in the area.
A Wild Apple Orchard - A Sign of Former People's Activity
And I spotted what I was looking for - the quartz stonewall!
It is Always a Pleasure To Find a Stonewall in Deep Forest
The stonewall ran along one of the three creeks flowing on this mountain slope and well shown on the 19th century topographical map. Now, the task was to choose the right direction of searching for a homestead site: upstream or downstream? The area across the creek looked optimal for setting up a house - flat and clean, in both directions.
My intuition advised me to go downstream, and the logic also prevailed: it would be more difficult for a horse to push some extra yards up the slope. To our advantage, we had a highest point of observation as we were walking on the higher bank of the creek. Soon our scouting came to a happy end: I noticed a large and square earth mound that had a flat top and a depression in the middle on another side of the creek.
Not to be overexcited about the discovery, I decided to cool myself down with ice-cold water from the creek.
