Tall Turtle

In 2012, when Sarah Kohler first spied a large boulder perched on a hill in woodlands across from her Western Massachusetts farm, she knew she was observing something unique. That stone was a harbinger of something much greater and would ultimately consume her world as she desperately worked to identify and preserve it.

In 2015 the seven-acre property went on the market. Sarah took that as an invitation to venture onto the land to examine the stone more closely and came face to face with “Tall Turtle." It is the name she gave to a magnificent boulder, split almost evenly in half and accentuated with intricate carvings. One section of the boulder lays flat on the ground and the part left standing is about 5 feet tall. It is chiseled at the top in the likeness of a turtle head. Below the head, a section of the standing stone is deeply grooved to form the shape of a turtle shell. It did not take long for Sarah to realize that the giant turtle monument was the focal point of an enormous network of stones, placed all over the hillside in formations of a celestial nature. The stones, some marked with carvings, can be attributed to alignments of significance from Solstice to Solstice, to lunar cycles, and to other meaningful celestial points.

Tall Turtle, swallowing the sun on the Summer Solstice.

There was no mistaking what she saw, “It was an epiphany."

Sarah became obsessed with the remarkable find, which she believes is direct evidence of ancient astronomical understanding. She began studying the stones, where they lay and what they symbolized, knowing they had been marked and placed by the original People of the land.

“They were placed there with intention, with deliberation, wisdom, pragmatism, prayer and ceremony that is beyond my comprehension and experience,” she said. One thing she was certain of was that they needed to be preserved.

Sarah removed some dry leaves to expose one of the stones that is part of an alignment of stones that appears to have astronomical significance.

Her reverence for the stones led her to leverage the equity in her farm at great personal sacrifice to obtain a mortgage to buy the land. Determined to protect Tall Turtle and the compelling stone alignments, her goal was to keep the land safe until an entity could be found to assume that responsibility.

This year Sarah donated the land to the Native Land Conservancy, a Mashpee based, Indigenous led land conservation organization to be that responsible entity. She wanted to entrust Tall Turtle to the original stewards of the land.

“They [the stones] were placed by the ancestral People of this land and their teachings must not be lost,” she said.

During a recent visit to the property, Sarah removed her shoes and socks to walk gingerly in the area directly surrounding Tall Turtle, being careful not to disturb the smaller stones. With a gentle wave of her hand, she directed our gaze to the long edge of the standing stone to observe a series of carved faces like those you might see on a totem pole. She then pointed out many other stones similarly etched or sculpted in a curious manner throughout the hillside.

Barefooted Sarah steps lightly around the stones.

“They are very deliberate and intentional forms and images,” she said. “They are phenomenally, intricately carved, and then weathered for centuries. There are lots of images that are only visible when the sun hits it from a particular angle.”

After making the original discovery, Sarah returned to the wooded area regularly to try to determine what was intended by the people who placed or marked them in the way they did, likely many centuries or even thousands of years ago. It didn’t take long for her to find an otherworldly explanation.

She was able to identify a series of stones poised in a position toward the hinge in the split of the Tall Turtle stone, that aligned perfectly with the sunrise of the Winter Solstice from one direction, and six months later the sunset of the Summer Solstice from the opposite direction.

It features “the rising of one solstice and setting of the other." Viewing the split boulder from the southeast, she said, "Here is a beast that swallows the sun on the Summer Solstice. It’s an epic story.”

Sarah uses her hands to illustrate how the Solstice is captured where the Tall Turtle splits.

While Sarah has no formal geological or astronomical training, the 62-year-old attributes her familiarity with the stones and their relationship to celestial phenomena to being a self-taught naturalist.

“I spent much of my childhood alone in the forest,” she said, “I learned about relationships in nature… I always saw the stones.”

She believes the stones have a message for us that may not be obvious to everyone but should not be ignored.

“If people could see what I see it would open their eyes,” she said. “Let the stones speak for themselves and teach their knowledge. You have to let your eyes take it in and let your ego and will and teachings go so you can see them.”

In June Sarah traveled to Mashpee with her dog, Piper to formalize the gift of the land by signing the deed over to the NLC. Founder and President Ramona Peters accepted each page of legalese with a gentle smile. She expressed her gratitude for the courage and generosity that Sarah exhibited in rescuing the land and the sacred array of stones.

Sarah signing the many documents that made the extraordinary gift of land official. They were passed to Ramona with NLC Advisor Mark Robinson and NLC Executive Director Diana Ruiz looking on.

“Once you see it,” said Sarah, “You can never unsee it. And because I saw it, I couldn’t turn away.”

The Compact of Cape Cod Conservation Trusts Executive Director and NLC advisor Mark Robinson was also on hand to notarize the documents and file them with the probate court. He said he has worked to facilitate literally hundreds of land donations throughout his career in land conservation and finds what Sarah did to be a truly remarkable thing.

“I can count on one hand the people who reached out to buy a piece of land, to stretch financially to save that land,” he said, “Not land that you inherited or carved off from land you owned, but actively go out and pursue this parcel in order to preserve it is very rare. That is really an amazing thing.”

Ramona and Sarah share a moment of gratitude after the papers were signed.