Picture taken on June 25, 2001
dolmen: A (prehistoric) monument consisting of two or more upright stones supporting a larger stone.
This idea developed after Deanna and I dug up a small landscaping "fish pond" in our front yard when we moved here in August of 1999. The sandy soil probably wouldn't have grown grass that would match the rest of the yard, so we decided just to cover up the area with something else. We are both interested in ancient civilizations and stone monuments, and Deanna suggested building a "mini-Stonehenge" to fill this area. So I took that idea and ran with it... and now we have Stanhenge. The construction was done from May-June, 2000. Many thanks go to my son Rob for all his help too!
The stone circle is 20 feet in diameter and is made up of 4 tons of field stones, each about 18-24 inches in diameter. The "trilithon" is made up of 3 stones, each approximately 4 feet long, 2 feet wide, and 8 inches thick. They weigh about 700 lbs each and come from Sandy Creek, Wisconsin. The first time I placed the stones, I had the opening "facing the road"... but we didn't like the look of that. Then we decided to go one step further and orient the stones so that the opening was aligned with the sunrise of the summer solstice, just like the real Stonehenge. I moved them twice more to achieve this, which was a LOT of work! Its not perfect, but we are quite satisfied with the result, and I'm not going to move them again! Besides the sunrise in summer, the opening also aligns with the sunset on the winter solstice. See more pictues below.
After completing the dolmen, I used smaller stones from Sandy Creek to build a short retaining wall (3 courses, drystacked, about 9-10 inches high overall) that defines a flower garden area along the front of the house, between the front door and the garage. The wall turns back toward the house to create a very small patio area with a bench. Sandy Creek flagstones were used for the patio area.
More pictures
Mid-day picture taken sometime in June 2000, shortly after completion (27kb)
Taken 2:00am on June 18, 2000. Very cool night picture lit up by full moon. (20kb)
Sunrise June 21 or June 22, 2000 (34kb)
Sunrise June 21 or June 22, 2000 (36kb)
Winter sunset December 17, 2000 (24kb)
Winter sunset December 21, 2000 (22kb)
Sunrise June 25, 2001 (43kb)
Sunrise June 25, 2001 (39kb)
Front of house before dolmen (54kb)
Front of house with dolmen (29kb)
Crop circles in my yard! (60kb)
The BEST picture, taken by Deanna on a cloudy day. (89kb)
