Friday, May 26, 2006

Kettles of Fleming County Kentucky

(via Larry Harrop)
Pam writes to Larry:
I stumbled across your site while preparing an article on the Kettles of Fleming County. These are a series of bowl-like structures (including one or two "lids") found along a ridge in Northern Kentucky, about 10-15 miles south of the Ohio River. I'm attached a couple of pictures of these kettles. A local observer says there are 7 such structures.
While we were on an expedition to these structures, we came across a stone lined in-ground structure about 12 feet X 7 feet (a colleague has more exact measurements). The local assumption has been that this was a root cellar by the only family known to reside on the site during historic times. It's one heck-of-a climb up to the summit, so its a safe assumption. The thing is is that the house of these inhabitants was at least 100-300 meters away --not even in sight given the heavy growth and terrain. When I looked closely at the site, it reminded me
of structures I had read described in New England.
Have you heard of any thing like this down here? I haven't been able to find good images on line of the New England structures, can you direct me further?

4 comments :

pwax said...

I wonder if all the bowls have been deliberately vandalized? The two in the pictures are each broken in half.

pwax said...

Also: the NEARA web page has a "photos" section with the largest available source online of pictures of underground stone chambers.

Go to
http://www.neara.org
Find the "Photos" link in the left-hand column.

Anonymous said...

I believe the pictures show the same bowl from different angles.

Anonymous said...

I have pictures of something similar but smaller. Mine are in much much better condition and are nearly flawless. I can’t figure out how to upload a picture of this formation.