Stone Cairns

 

Not Long ago, our industrious editor punily suggested a column on stone cairns with some special focus on counter-culture folk. He noted that a hot spot for cairn building is the rocky beach route to the lighthouse in the summer.

A dictionary (maybe Merriam-Webster) used by Cynthia (see below) says “Cairn” is from Scottish carne, akin to Gaelic carn “heap of stones, rocky hill” and Gaulish karnon “horn,” perhaps from PIE *ker-n- “highest part of the body, horn,” thus “tip, peak” (see horn (n.).

Always ready to please our editor, I entered “Stone Cairns” into a search engine; I was presented with about 20 sites per page, stopping at 31 pages with an arrow pointing to more. Caveat Lector: I neither read all of the 600+ sites nor do I know how far beyond 31 pages the response extends. Here is what I have gleaned

Most importantly, there are uncounted people commenting on an even more uncounted bevy of cairns all over the world and through the mists of time. (Cliché noted.) That includes our local paper’s recounting of the 2009 dedication of the major cairns along Highway 61 with the names of North Shore cities near their boundaries and a 2021 WTIP radio show.

The 2009 story said, “Gunflint Trail Scenic Byways Council joining the Highway 61 group at the foot of the new Gunflint Trail in Grand Marais. The cairn sign at that site features the logos of both the Highway 61 Scenic Byway and Gunflint Trail Scenic Byway. Grand Marais is the site of two of the large cairn signs, the one at the highway and Gunflint Trail intersection and another on the western edge of the city.

Arrowhead Regional Development Commission, which has facilitated the five-year cairn project notes the distinctive signs were made possible through a National Scenic Byways grant, with a local match from each community. The … average cost per sign was $22,000, for an overall project cost of $117,000. (I get $132,000, but I am sure there is an explanation.)

The rock cairns were constructed by Hovland, Inc. of Hermantown, using local materials, including Carlton Peak rock.

Last summer, on the 7/13 WTIP Roadhouse show, Tettegouche naturalist Kurt Mead told listeners that rock stacking is almost an art form. Originally, they were cone-shaped piles to mark a trail, especially in the mountains.

The use of cairns to mark property corners or boundaries was a big deal in colonial New England. Henry David Thoreau did a survey for Ralph Waldo Emerson that is recounted at Custom404 • Concord, MA • CivicEngage (concordma.gov). Thoreau noted that six corners were marked with “stakes and stones.” Numerous colonial commentators are noted at that website.

Native Stone.com tells us that “Stone piles, heaps or mounds are alternate names for cairns. Cairns have served to memorialize people, locations or events. Cairns occur in many styles and sizes, and undoubtedly were built for a number of different reasons, only some of which we can comprehend today. “

Giving more detail, Native Stone says that Cairns serve as Sacrifice Rocks, Border Markers, Platform Cairns, Appended Cairns, Corner Cairns, and Columnar, Shaped and Effigy Cairns. You can look them up.

There was not much on counter-culture folk and stone cairns. I did find one site that addressed our editor’s interest.

More directly accessible is “Rock Cairns—Part 2— Nature Science, the Occult and Crystals.” The author is Cynthia (no last name given). She writes, “Surely you recognize that there are very real, tangible, spiritual, ritualist aspects to stone structures. There is (sic) also very real spiritual aspects to the stones themselves; their type, their shapes, the locations where they originate. When you bring these things into your life, home, environment, you are bringing spiritual repercussions as well as inviting demonic spirits. They probably have curses on them that wear uttered or prayed by the people who created them. BEWARE!”

Our editor—and you— can find more to scratch the counter-culture itch at Krista-Mitchell.com where there is what looks like a book titled Earth Magick: Crystals and Land Spirits. Perhaps you or he will write this columnist with your further learnings. if you haven’t had enough by now, rock stacks often fascinate photographers, and there are several collections of amazing balanced rock sculptures online, including ones at Photography Blogger, Lila Higgins’ photostream at Flickr, the website of professional rock balancing and rock stacking Team Sandtastic, photographer James Jordan’s Flickr set of rock balancing photos taken in Wisconsin and Illinois, and Minnesota rock balancer and photographer Peter Juhl’s website. (Credit to Dominique King at Midwest Guest: Lighthouse.)

Caveat Rockers: The July 2015 Smithsonian Magazine warns against free lancing. “If you make your own cairn, it leads people in the wrong direction, and it could get people in trouble. So come out and enjoy the cairns, find them all, but please don’t disturb them.” Conservationists Want You to Stop Building Rock Piles | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine.

Steve Aldrich is a retired Hennepin County lawyer, mediator, and Judge, serving from 1997-2010. He and his wife moved here in 2016. He likes to remember that he was a Minnesota Super Lawyer before being elected to the bench. Now he is among the most vulnerable to viruses but fully vaccinated.

Steve really enjoys doing weddings, the one thing a retired judge can do without appointment by the Chief Justice.

Copyright Stephen C. Aldrich and News-Herald, 2021.