of interest to M&D readers: America's Stonehenge

[Doug Millison]

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/travel/escapes/11stonehenge.html

Salem, N.H. — At this leafless and gloomy time of year I traveled, in  
the spirit of the symbologist Robert Langdon of “The Da Vinci Code,”  
to America’s Stonehenge, in this town five miles from the  
Massachusetts border. Scholars have debated whether the stone cairns  
and chambers here were built by early American Indians, enterprising  
colonial settlers or, more controversially, a migrant European culture  
that visited these woods nearly 4,000 years ago.

Determined to plumb these mysteries, I arrived at a rustic information  
center and gift shop on a cold and gray Sunday morning. Inside I was  
greeted by the aptly named Dennis Stone, 55, a commercial airline  
pilot who along with his wife, Pat, 59, owns this unusual roadside  
attraction. (Dennis’s father, Robert E. Stone, 80, began leasing the  
site in 1958 and bought all 105 acres in 1965, saving it from possible  
development.)

A charming mix of prehistoric wonders, alpaca farming and kitsch,  
America’s Stonehenge is an oasis of eccentricity in an ever-growing  
world of carefully managed and manicured tourist spots.

“We don’t think it was a ‘habitat’ site,” said the stocky,  
bespectacled Mr. Stone. “Perhaps a shaman once stayed here, but  
primarily it’s a religious and astronomical site, a gathering place,  
like Stonehenge in England.” …