Symbol Rock

^{In Rockville, Rhode Island, located in Yawgoog Scout Reservation, is a petroglyph that has baffled historians and archaeologists. On the local map, its noted as Symbol Rock. Experts have described the images as a woman with child, and various circular line drawings and depressions. No one really knows what it’s meaning or purpose could be. Settlers discovered many of these rocks, but most were destroyed when the land was cleared for farms, or when the rocks were used for walls and buildings. Symbol Rock is one of the few stones that survived unharmed. Settlers that saw the rock were as puzzled as we are today. Local Indians did not provide any insight as to it’s origin. Archaeologists have many theories as to who created these carvings. Some experts claim a much earlier generation of Narragansett Indians may have carved the images. Others argue that the symbols are not at all like any known Indian symbols, and resemble Viking, Pre-Colombian Celtic, or Phoenicians symbols.}

^{We may never know who left these cryptic symbols. Until we stumble onto New England’s equivalent of the Rosetta Stone, we may never understand them, but if you have a knack for games like Concentration, or code breaking, maybe you can take a crack at it, and finally put to rest one part of this puzzle that has stumped New Englanders for hundreds of years.}

^{If this rock is out of the way for you, don’t fret, its one of many boulders that can be found in New England, that are marked with mysterious text and symbols. Some that have been part of a heated debate since the late 1600s, but we’ll save their story for another time.}

_{~ Strange New England}