Stone alignment mystery

[LongStride]

Wanted to share part of my site that has an interesting mystery, on my property there are rows of huge rocks the size of car hoods in the ground sticking out approximately 2 inches, in between each stone there are smaller filler stones, the photos show some excavated rocks from when we did a dig her 20+ years ago, my grandfather told me his grandfather showed him this place and referred to it as "the place where you can get rocks" so no telling how many rocks have been removed from here since my people settled this land in the mid 1840's , there are no other large rocks on my property, someone went to a considerable effort to get them here and stand them up in the dirt like that, my theory was these were earthen houses, after talking with Dr Thomas Hester who opinion I trust said no earthen houses exists south of Red River area , it was suggested that this was some sort of celestial alignment marker so.i followed that rabbit hole, the stones are aligned at approximately 40° North, I visited the stones at winter solstice and found the shadow aligned with the stones at mid day but not at morning or evening, there is an intersection where the stones make an X which gave me the idea this could have been a medicine wheel , most of my identifiable artifacts from my site date late Paleo , there is an ancient trail that goes through the property that connected Old San Antonio road to El Camino Real , we know the Spanish roads already existed as buffalo, game, and human trails prior to Spanish exploration so I can theorize about the site being part of the trail system, my favorite theory is the medicine wheel, I try and visit on the solstice and enjoy the energy of this ancient mystery, I am welcome to any theorys as to what this is, I have screen dug multiple test holes, and metal detected the area

[Missouri Breaks]

Amazing and like you’ve hypothesized, it’s likely a marker as we are well aware the indigenous people made. Celestially related also seems very plausible and I see the reasoning behind the medicine wheel idea. In all cases what a great site and very nice points!

[Jethro355]

Someone did an awful lot of work getting those stones there….and standing them up.
how deep in the ground do they go?

[LongStride]

3 to 4 feet deep

[Uncle Trav]

Very interesting. Could it be a graveyard from Spanish colonial days?

[LongStride]

grave stones is not out of the realm of possibilities, to leave only 2 inches of these giant rocks above the surface leaves that theory near the bottom of the list

[Stansbery]

When initially placed, who knows if they were on top, or partially buried, They could have settled naturally, or soil accumulated on top. Unfortunately the early settlers may have taken many for foundation stones. If you are ambitious enough, you could survey the site and draw a map. That would give others something to go on when trying to evaluate it's possible purpose. It's extremely interesting to say the least.

[LongStride]

Certainly some settling has occurred, between each stone are smaller filler stones that we can use to approximate the original depth, the filler stones are about 6" below the top of the big rocks, I have tried to illustrate with the drawing showing the cross section with the filler stones

[Stansbery]

How many stones are in a line of stones and how long are the lines. You said they cross, is it at 90 degrees? What you've sketched looks like it could have been a foundation. Are you certain it's prehistoric.

[LongStride]

[QUOTE=Stansbery;n576386]How many stones are in a line of stones and how long are the lines. You said they cross, is it at 90 degrees? What you've sketched looks like it could have been a foundation. Are you certain it's prehistori
They are spread out approximately100 feet, hard to say how many, people keep taking them, we keep.finding more, foundation is one of the most popular theorys , I've seen old foundation stones and they were laid flat on the ground, not stood on end, whether it's prehistoric has not been proven, metal detector never found anything, I recently purchased a better metal detector and am going to try again, if it is historic there should be some metal and a privey, haven't found either, my theory of being an earthen house was based on the fact it seemed to be a wall, my people have been on this property 180 years, we know it's at least older than that

[antmike915]

Awesome post longStride, looking forward to what you find there.

[Sugaree]

A few years ago I found some similar looking stones standing upright in a rectangular pattern. Curious as to what they were I got a backpack blower and discovered lots of non native 1800 pottery and glass debitage. Eventually I got a metal detector and it led me on an amazing historical journey as the stones were whats left of an 1800’s homestead. I believe it’s probably an old foundation give detecting it another try and make sure your iron bias is off. My site has only six of the upright stones left standing. I have to admit I thought they were graves at first.

[LongStride]

leaf blower is a great idea

[Garguy]

Very interesting. What part of Texas is this?

[LongStride]

approximately 60 miles east of Austin in Milam County

[Garguy]

Thanks. More questions. Did you dig the points shown in association to the structure? Also does there appear to be a stone floor or all of them appear to have originally been set standing?

[LongStride]

the points are all surface finds around the hill where the rocks are , no stones below the vertical ones, no floor ever found, for certain they were placed upright by man down in the dirt

[tomf]

This post sent me down the rabbit hole. Started reading about American standing stones and henges. Basically, they don't seem to exist. Only thing I stumbled on that had any relevance - and it's a stretch to say the least - is the Connecticut site Gungywump , where there is a component very similar to yours.
Lots of imaginative interpretations attached to the place. As you'll see if you google it.

https://dpnc.org/gungywamp/

http://www.stonestructures.org/html/gungywamp.html

First section of second link has diagrams that you'll find interesting.. The rest might be crackpot, dunno, too much to read.

[sailorjoe]

This is a very interesting thread and I applaud your efforts at trying to figure out the mystery. I look forward to what you are able to learn.

[Tam]

I have driven the roads in Cal with the El Camino Real green bell as a road marker. There are many stops along the way that were back then, goods stores . Like the old westerns supply stores . When you stated triangle my guess was a safe haven for sleeping . Camping over night safe behind rocks . I can’t imagine that history is not written down in some old county books .
We have an area in. S Georgia that was attacked by the creek Indians till the very late 1800’s . All homes built in the 1900’s are there. They wrote about forts and havens being attacked .
Dig a little in that direction and you might find your answer .