Ontario Lake - Mysterious Structure

Beagle · Post by **Beagle** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 6:38 am

http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/002729.html

In the spring of 2005, diving was conducted in MacDonald Lake as part of a unique submarine project at the Haliburton Forest and Wild Life Reserve. Repeatedly staff of Haliburton Forest would stumble upon an unusual stone structure, perched on top of a rock ledge at a depth of 40 feet below the present lake level. Initially the structure was considered a complex version of a 'perched erratic', those monstrous rocks, ferried by the glaciers thousands of years ago and dumped where they happened to melt at the end of one of the recent cold-freezes.
When several geologists and archaeologists saw images of this object - a 1,000 pound, elongated and south pointing rock sitting on baseball-sized stones at each end, which in turn, were resting on a massive, several thousand pound slab on top of the ledge, they expressed doubts about its natural origin. Haliburton Forest engaged the services of an underwater archaeologist to examine the structure. Before diving, he explained that so far he had never encountered man-made rock-cairns, which were stabilised without the help of shim-stones. If he found these, it would convince him of the structure's man-made, not natural, origin.
After a 30 minute dive examining the rock assembly closely and carefully, taking pictures along the way, the expert emerged with his unequivocal conclusion: the existence of 3 shims was proof to him that the assembly of now seven rocks was the result of human activity and not a fluke of nature. Subsequently, Haliburton Forest turned to the services of a statistician to calculate the probability of 7 rocks falling on top of each other creating a 'structure'. Albeit difficult to assess, he reported back that even 4 rocks creating a natural structure was almost unattainable, but that the probability of 7 rocks hitting at the right time and place was virtually impossible.

I have my doubts that this will amount to anything, as no scientist has had a look at it, from what this article says. Hopefully though, there will be some scientific follow-up.

Post by **Minimalist** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 7:31 am

the existence of 3 shims was proof to him that the assembly of now seven rocks was the result of human activity and not a fluke of nature.

Kind of wish they had posted the photos they took, huh?

Beagle · Post by **Beagle** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 7:44 am

If there's anything to this story, there probably will be pics soon.

Post by **Minimalist** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 8:22 am

Reminds me of The Bimini Road. It's a "natural formation" say the geologists.....meanwhile there are shim stones between the tiers of rock to level them off!

Ugh!!!

Beagle · Post by **Beagle** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 9:24 am

Reminds me of The Bimini Road.

Later this evening, I might have a couple of beers and tell you what I think about that "road".

Post by **Minimalist** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:07 am

Looking forward to it.

Digit · Post by **Digit** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:08 am

Then he'll have few more folks and become incoherent!

Post by **Minimalist** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:10 am

Coherence is overrated.

Sam Salmon · Post by **Sam Salmon** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 11:06 am

I grew up in Ontario and was surrounded by evidence of the power of glaciation-I don't believe a word.

Odd shaped rock structures that look man made are a dime a dozen in the bush.

Beagle · Post by **Beagle** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 8:24 pm

You're right Sam. This pic shows us the same kind of glacial deposit oddity that is present thoughout upper North America.

http://www.farshores.org/am8struc.htm

As glaciers retreat, they can drop these stones in unusual formations. This is typical.

dannan14 · Post by **dannan14** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:13 pm

Wow, if that picture is the 'cairn' the article talks about then i am very disappointed.. Oh well, Maybe ancient inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere simply had no need for lasting monuments.

kbs2244 · Post by **kbs2244** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 11:20 am

Seven supporting stones and “shim stones” doesn’t sound very natural to me.

dannan14 · Post by **dannan14** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 11:48 am

kbs2244 wrote:Seven supporting stones and “shim stones” doesn’t sound very natural to me.

That is what got me excited about the article in the first place, but when Beagle posted the link with a pic it did not appear to be man made. Hopefully, the particular stone the diver claimed was leveled with shim stones is not the one in the picture.

Sam Salmon · Post by **Sam Salmon** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 12:22 pm

kbs2244 wrote:Seven supporting stones and “shim stones” doesn’t sound very natural to me.

That's something I've seen more times than I can count-smaller and more regular stones than those in the illustration jammed between much much bigger stones-it all means nothing.

CShark · Post by **CShark** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 4:30 pm

Sam Salmon wrote:I grew up in Ontario and was surrounded by evidence of the power of glaciation-I don't believe a word.

Odd shaped rock structures that look man made are a dime a dozen in the bush.

Off-topic, I know, but where in Ont ? I spent 23 yrs in Ottawa before moving to PEI.

Archaeologica.org

Ontario Lake - Mysterious Structure

Ontario Lake - Mysterious Structure

From Ontario...sort of