When you follow the winding road to the top of Shenandoah Mountain, the border between Highland and Augusta Counties in the Allegheny Mountains of Virginia, you’ll find the Confederate Breastworks, remnants of a Civil War encampment dating back to 1862. At the nearby town of McDowell, North and South fought a formidable battle preceded by a long period of camping in the snow.
The incomparable view overlooking the mountain wilderness explains the logic of the encampment but also gives us an inkling of the hardships involved in trying to survive the desolate winter with its howling winds, miles from civilization:
Shenandoah Mountain Overlook
Times are a lot more peaceful now in this remote region. Apart from the million-dollar view, another treasure awaits the intrepid traveler: a massive stone wall built with rocks from the surrounding area.
Curve of Stonewall
There is a unique beauty to stone. Colors and textures give clues to their origin and sometimes even their age. A rock around here can be millions of years old. Rocks have been around for a very long time and if we sit with them long enough, they’ll ground us, and soak up our contemporary stress and war stories.
Red rock in stone wall
The large red stones, in particular, caught my attention and became the object of my curiosity and admiration:
red stone wall detail
stonewall detail
Maybe some of my readers will know more about these intriguing stones?
This post was created in response to this week’s theme for the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge”Object.”
no idea, but it does look rather fantastic!
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Massive and impressive, Ute, I look at this wall every time I stop by there.
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Beautiful post….and once again our minds are flowing in similar veins….stone and the history of the land 🙂
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Can’t wait to see your post, Seonaid.
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I love the colorful stone in this wall. And your view from Shenandoah Mountain Overlook is fabulous! It’s good you’re still getting out in the icy air! 🙂
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We are also experiencing a bit of a defrost time, a nice reprieve. But you know the predictions from Groundhog Day: 6 more weeks of winter! Grrr….
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I know, I’m not thrilled about that! 🙂
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Looks like iron deposits in the stone. Pretty common on the east coast where I’m from, also. Great post and love the pictures. Visited there one time many years ago. Thanks for sharing.
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I have been wondering about iron content myself, Barney. Thank you for visiting and commenting.
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I love stone walls too. They always make me dream about history and imagine the people who built them.
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So true for me, too, Sheila. These walls do carry their history with them.
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Lovely countryside, Annette, and the red colour in that wall is very attractive indeed. 🙂
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I was going to say that looks like iron deposits, but someone beat me to it. We used to hike through the Shenandoah Mountains. Gorgeous. I was trying to remember an old Civil War Shot Tower that we visited either in WV or VA. I can’t remember the location of the Shot Tower..darn…but it was fascinating. I think Virginia is my favorite state for its natural beauty. Thanks for the memories. 🙂
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There are so many places of Civil War fame it’s hard to keep up with them 🙂
Virginia is indeed a beautiful state and has a lot of variety, from the beaches to the piedmont to the mountains.
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The red IS really intriguing. We don’t see a lot of iron in the rocks around here but it tends to look orangey. The deep red is quite impressive. It must have been quite tough to camp out in the mountains in the winter. I can feel the wind and cold just looking at your photo.
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Yes, that intense red is quite unusual and I had thought of iron coloring as rusty orange also.
I can’t even imagine having to camp out in these wintery elevations for a day, far less weeks or months at a time. I think a lot of soldiers were lost to disease and lack of adequate food…..
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Love the colors and textures of natural rock and stone. This wall is wonderful.
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Thank you, Charly, this wall is easy to love, isn’t it?!
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Very, we have an old small quarry in our town. It’s now the local ‘water feature’, swans, a couple of water falls, and of course fences for safety. The most beautiful of colors run through that granite. Ulysses S Grant’s tomb was built using it. I need to post some rocks 🙂
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Please do – post rocks, I mean 🙂 They are fascinating in their different shapes, colors and textures. What it must be like to sit there for millions of years waiting for time to pass….
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