This was an interesting side trip heading up I-91 in southern Vermont. Bellow Falls Vermont lies on the Connecticut River right where Bellow or Great Falls is located. The townspeople built a canal around the falls to navigate on the river. These petroglyphs are located on that section of the river which the canal bypasses. There are dams on the downriver side of the canal and just above the petroglyph site where the falls would have been. See photo below taken from the petroglyph site.
Reverend Robert McClure of Dartmouth College wrote about the site in 1789 and attributed the carvings to the local Abenaki tribe. Over time, speculation on the origin and meaning of the carvings have been debated with no definitive answers. Dating the carvings is almost impossible. In the 1930s, the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution hired a local stone cutter to recarve the heads since they had eroded by river water for so many years. In 1961 someone added yellow paint so they could be seen better. You can see some of that paint today. There are yellow painted bars above the two petroglyph sites so they can be located from above.
From the site looking downriver
The carvings are located down a steep rock forming on the west side of the Connecticut River gorge. They can be accessed by walking from downtown Bellow Falls on Bridge Street to the now closed Vilas Bridge. They can be seen from above near the bridge entrance. To get down to them, follow the side road on the bridge entrance on the right about 50 yards. There is a faint trail here which disappears once you are on solid rock. When I went, there was a local fellow above guiding me to the site. I may have found it on my own if I had taken the time to see them from above and locate a route to them along the rocks. Wear shoes with good grip. The rocks can be slick.
Note the drippy yellow paint at the top of the photo.
In 1990 the site was placed on the Register of Historic Places. The documentation for that placement mentioned that the figures are consistent with corn husk masks of the Abenaki Indians.
A yellow painted bar above marks the site
The site encompasses two panels located about 30 feet from each other. There is a panel of 8 and a panel of 16 figures. Some have these weird extraterrestrial-like antennas convincing some folks that the Indians were visited by aliens. I must say that they don't look like feathers or antlers. They look like early era television antennas.
The site has been damaged as I wrote earlier. There may have been other cravings here which could have eroded away by water or could be hidden from view by shifting rocks. Dynamiting the logjams below the falls could also have obscured some. When the canal was built nearby, an Abenaki burying ground was disturbed. Could that have some significance to the site??
There are a few other Native American carvings in the area including one underwater in Brattleboro. These are the most extensive of those.
Two yellow bars can barely be seen in the photo to mark the petroglyph location.
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