It is always exciting to discover walls in your area that were built long ago. Sometimes the walls are too far gone to do anything but just try to imagine the circumstances that necessitated all the hard work gone into collecting rocks and constructing these long forgotten walls. Other walls will instantly provoke us to do something about documenting them and save them from obscurity, and in some cases, take measures to prevent any further disrepair. We need to pool the information we have about these historic walls and work together to make sure they are not destroyed with the advancement of urban sprawl, and the endless plundering that goes on for patio stone material.
There are several clusters of good older dry stone walls throughout Southern Ontario. We are continuing to compile information about other walls too not only in Ontario, but the Maritimes and out in Western Canada.
Early spring is the best time to look for walls . There are no leaves or shrubs to cloak their whereabouts.
Look out for walls along hedge rows along old farm fields which still have stones in them.
Piles of stone seen from a distance along fence line, are sometimes not just stones piled randomly, but upon careful inspection, may reveal remnants of places where the stones were quite carefully 'stacked' to create a wall. Areas where there are rock outcroppings or quarries are good places to go wall watching. It is likely that the property around and along canals, escarpments and stoney river beds will reveal evidence of activity where people in the past have attempted building walls with all the readily available stone.
If you do find such a spot, take lots of pictures.
And look for more walls in that area.
Ask around about them. Put out the word that you are interested in them and that there is a Dry Stone Walling Across Canada and that we are interested in documenting them.
Investigate about their history. Who made them and when, and write it all down.
How good a condition are they in. Are they in need of repair and is most of the stone still there to do such a repair?
Consider the possibility of organizing a seminar to repair a wall in your area.
Make sure people know that these historic walls are worth repairing and preserving.
Other wise we'll all be asking about these walls.....
Where'd the Walls Go?