Back in the mid-1850’s an immense, mostly buried rock wall encompassing an area of up to 20 square miles was discovered at Rockwall, Texas—or so it was named after the discovery. People of that time up and up to today thought it was the remnants of some ancient, long lost civilization. Current day geologists, generally believe that it is simply a geological feature though they are short on a theory or mechanism for its creation. Scientists in a knee-jerk fashion often label these types of phenomena “natural”.
Others, in a knee-jerk fashion label these types of phenomena “remnants of ancient civilizations”. This feature has been known about for longer than 150 years and there hasn’t been much scientific interest for some reason.
Here at s8int.com. we don’t know if its manmade, natural or some combination—but it is interesting. There are certainly some features of the wall which in our unexpert opinion leads us to believe somebody at the very least modified it in ancient times.
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This fascinating and unusual structure after which Rockwall, Texas was named poses some significant questions:
Is this wall natural or artificial?
Is there an exciting archeological site buried right here in our own state?
Could this be the wall of an ancient city?
Or, has nature given us a natural wonder, unlike any other found in North America?
“Let us consider Rockwall, Texas, a small town named for a strange wall, mostly buried, that exists in the area. We have had inquiries about this structure but have little in the way of substantial data.
Just arrived is a facetious newspaper item that relates how, some 50 years ago, R.F. Canup excavated part of this wall. He dug 8 feet down and eventually unearthed about 100 feet of the wall. That was enough to convince him that it was the masonry wall of an ancient city.
Geologists, on the other hand, ridicule this idea, saying it is only a natural rock formation.
(Streater, Don; "Geologists Burst Rockwall's Bubble," Beaumont Enterprise, September 8, 1986. Cr. S. Parker via L. Farish.)
Comment. What we really need are some authoritative geological and archeological reports. Have any professionals ever visited the site? It seems incredible that Canup could have mistaken a natural rock wall for an artificial one! “
The Discovery of the "Rock Wall"
|The picture shows two metal rings that were discovered during the walls excavation.
These rings are approximately 10" in diameter and 6" respectively. The rings were embedded within the stones that make up the wall. The rings composition has been analyzed. Their material makeup is (SN "Tin"), (Ti "Titanium") and (Fe "Iron").
These were previously held pictures and only now are coming to public view. How do you think they (the metal spheres) got there?
Of the early settlers, there were three Newcomers, T.U. Wade, B.F. Boydston and a Mr. Stevenson that had arrived to establish a farming community. In 1852, T.U. Wade and his family began building their house on the east side of the east fork of the Trinity River valley near the western edge of the present townsite of Rockwall which is just north of today's Highway 66.
In the process of digging the homestead well, Mr. Wade hit a stone formation. Further digging and investigation discovered a "rock wall" below the surface which ran at an extended length.
At the time, Stevenson, Boydston and Wade were at odds with each other, each wanting to name the town after themselves. On the discovery of the "rock wall" they decided to name the town Rockwall and resolve their differences. (J.Glenn, 1950)
Even though the "rock wall" at that time had outcroppings around the area that stood two to three feet tall with their capstones in place, no connection had been made to the extent and scope of this fence-like appearance much less at being an actual wall.
The following is information gathered from Mary Pattie (Wade) Gibson, granddaughter of T.U. Wade, founder of the wall at the Rockwall County Historical Foundation. She described the additional digging her grandfather and other men did at the homesite.
In this description were cubicles or rooms constructed of stone which you could walk through and would reach a corridor which seemed to run in a direction into the hill that the town square sits above.
She told of an incident in 1906 of two unidentified men digging out the corridor which had apparently been filled with erosion. Their intent was to reach a room or cavity under the town which would be full of gold, apparently derived in part from Indian legend.
The ceiling of the corridor had steep slopes (describing a Gothic type arched ceiling, much like the Mayans built), and the further into the corridor the two men excavated the steeper the slope of the ceiling became, consequently, the men fearful of a structural failure abandoned their search for gold.
Mary Pattie Gibson also spoke that her grandfather's exploration of the wall, discovered on the outside, the wall went straight down. On the inside she described the wall going down to about forty feet, curves inward and becomes much thicker.
This sounded like a buttress effect that has been used to support high standing structures and implies direction and transfer of liveloads.
Additional information provided by the daughter of the late Mr. Deweese, an early settler of Rockwall, who described a doorway with a diagonal shaped stone in the wall at the Wade residence on Highway 66. This portion of the wall was open to visitors from 1936 until the late 1940's, and was consequently back filled because of dangerous structural conditions.
Artists conception of a part of the wall-from photos. Click and drag photo to resize. Mr. Henry Squires, a native of Rockwall and an accomplished historian to the area identified an outcropping of the wall on a county road in the northeast portion of Rockwall County. Here a well had been dug in 1897 by Mr. Deweese, assisted by Mr. T.H. Meredith. The well was dug on the outside of the wall (the east side of the east perimeter wall).
Before digging the well, they dug a shaft through a cross section of this larger wall, but the stones were wet and so heavy, after about thirty feet, they abandoned the work of drawing the stones out of the shaft.
They directed the remainder of the shaft to the outside of the wall to complete a well. At about thirty- five feet down they discovered an almost perfect square opening through the wall, which has been referred to as a "window."
The opening was two feet square, in a two foot section of the wall. The total depth of the shaft was forty-two feet, but they did not find the bottom of the structure. (J.Glenn, 1950).
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In 1949, a Mr. Sanders of Fort Worth, Texas, did an excavation of the wall. From this excavation four large stones were brought up with the largest weighing approximately two tons. On these stones were found inscriptions with what appear to be pictographs.
These extremely dense stones have been underground, therefore erosion has not been the cause of the designs on them, Moreover, there are no other stones or portions of the wall with inscriptions or diagrams that have been discovered to date. (J. Glenn, 1950)
There are other reports of doorways or windows found in the wall through the past 100 years such as reported in the Dallas Morning News, 5 November 1967 by Frank X. Tolbert, "Back in the 1920's, T.H. Meredith said a well was dug on his farm just east of the town of Rockwall, and Mr. Meredith declared that the digging went along side a masonry wall which seemed to have an arch over a doorway or window."
Quotes from scientists who are presently involved with or have inspected the excavation and research to date of effort to expose the "Rockwall":
"The exposed wall is quite spectacular to see first hand and determining its origin, genesis and age invokes a number of exciting research opportunities that can certainly advance our understanding of this type of phenomena.
The most important fact, however, is the point that geologists actually do not know the precise processes that created this feature; and, therefore, a systematic and detailed study of a section of the wall has the potential to expand our knowledge and reveal new data not considered heretofore"
Randall Moir Ph.D Archaeologist - Dallas, Texas
"It is good when examples like Rockwall appear that test our abilities and cause us to question basic Newtonian Mechanistic assumptions that have not been modified for over 150 years. Physics had to abandon this approach at the turn of this century, opting instead for relativity and quantum mechanics in order to further their understanding of matter and the universe.
These two theories are currently undergoing radical revision behind the scenes because of new discoveries that do not fit that paradigm. We would do well to embrace the new physics to help us explain things that we have swept beneath the rug for too long before we lose all credibility."
James (Bud) Shelton Geologist - New Orleans, La.
My family and I took a trip to Rockwall Texas this past weekend. (February 2006) I tried to get some information off the web prior to visiting the town but found nothing especially helpful.
Even the town's website www.Rockwall.com had only a short passing mention of this wall after which the town was named.
Upon arriving in town, we asked 3 or 4 people that we met about the wall. One did not seem to know what I was talking about. The other three appeared to know something about it, but when I asked them where I could see this wall, none really knew for sure.
They gave me some suggestions, but I never saw a piece of the orignial wall. It was so frustrating!
All we ended up seeing was about a 10 X 3 ft section that had been dug up and relocated to the town square. If it was reproduced in much the same arangement that it was found, it does not take a genius to determine that it was not there "naturally".
I can not believe that the town of Rockwall sits on what could be one of the most important archeologial sites in the country, and they don't even seem to care, when a few days or weeks of careful digging would probably reveal whether or not this wall was man-made or natural.
It would also generate an incredible amount of tourism to the area either way. I suspect the fact that there are several high dollar homes built over a good portion of the wall is a factor, but c'mon. I'm praying someone will endeavor to explore what is there.
I'm sure the stones have an interesting story to tell. If you know of anyone from that area that can show me where I can view a part of the original wall, I'd sure appreciate it.
Send responses to: ChrisG@s8int.com