Sunday, December 14, 2014

Rock Cairns

Rock Cairns

In my travels I have encountered graves covered with stack stone. These type of grave covers are referred to as rock cairns in A Guide to Common Alabama Grave Covers (www.preserveala.org).
Rock Cairn - Mt. Pleasant UMC Franklin County, Alabama
Most of the time I know enough about the local geology to determine if the stones are local or from somewhere else. Sometimes the rock appears to have been quarried and shaped and other time it appears that it was picked up and used as is. At Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church and Macedonia Baptist Church in Franklin County, Alabama the slabs used to construct the cairns appear to come from the limestone rocks formation that are  exposed in the floor of Moulton Valley.