America's Stonehenge

America's Stonehenge is a privately owned tourist attraction and archaeological site consisting of a number of large rocks and stone structures scattered around roughly 30 acres (12 hectares) within the town of Salem, New Hampshire, in the United States. It is open to the public for a fee as part of a recreational area which includes snowshoe trails and an alpaca farm. A number of hypotheses exist as to the origin and purpose of the structures. One viewpoint is a mixture of land-use practices of local farmers in the 18th and 19th centuries and construction of structures by owner William Goodwin, an insurance executive who purchased the area in 1937. Some claim that the site has a pre-Columbian European origin, but this is regarded as pseudoarchaeological. Archaeologist David Starbuck has said: "It is widely believed that Goodwin may have 'created' much of what is visible at the site today." The site was first dubbed Mystery Hill by William Goodwin. This was the official name of the site until 1982, when it was renamed "America's Stonehenge", a term coined in a news article in the early 1960s. The rebranding was an effort to separate it from roadside oddity sites and to reinforce the idea that it is an ancient archaeological site. The area is named after Stonehenge in England, although there is no evidence of cultural or historical connection between the two. It is mentioned, as Mystery Hill, on New Hampshire Historical Marker No. 72.

Archaeologists radio-carbon analysis of charcoal on the site shows that there were humans occupying the area 4,000 years ago. In 1982, David Stewart-Smith, director of restoration at Mystery Hill, conducted an excavation of a megalith found in a stone quarry to the north of the main site. His research team excavated the quarry site under the supervision of the New Hampshire state archaeologist and discovered hundreds of chips and flakes from the stone. They concluded that this was evidence of tool manufacture, consistent with American indigenous lithic techniques, although no date could be ascertained. Archaeologist Curtis Runnels stated, "No Bronze Age artifacts have been found there. ... In fact, no one has found a single artifact of European origin from that period anywhere in the New World." The surface of the stone suggests that it was quarried with percussion techniques, indicating that the stone was modeled by indigenous stone workers as it was sculpted by indigenous stone tools rather than the metal tools that were used by European settlers. Some also speculate that the structure is an accurate astronomical calendar that can be used to predict lunar and solar events in North America. The remains of a Native American wigwam have been found in the area and a replica can be seen next to the trail. Associated with it were two fire pits that date back to 2,000 years ago. A canoe dated to approximately 300 years ago can be seen in the museum. Various Native American tools and pottery have also been found on the site. The site first appears in print in the 1907 History of Salem, N.H.:

Jonathan Pattee's Cave. He had a house in these woods 70 years ago; took town paupers before the town farm was bought. This is a wild but beautiful spot, among rough boulders and soft pines, about which the most weird and fantastic tale might be woven. There are several caves still intact, which the owner used for storage purposes. Many believe that Pattee built the site in the nineteenth century, and no unequivocal pre-Columbian European artifacts have been found there. The site's history is muddled partly because of the activities of William Goodwin, who became convinced that the location was proof that Irish monks (the Culdees) had lived there long before the time of Christopher Columbus, and he sought to publicize

Archaeological site data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).