America's Stonehenge is a privately owned place that people can visit. It is located in Salem, New Hampshire, United States, and covers about 30 acres (12 hectares). The site includes many large rocks and stone structures. Visitors pay a fee to explore it, and the area also has snowshoe trails and an alpaca farm.

There are several ideas about how and why the structures were built. One idea suggests that local farmers in the 18th and 19th centuries used the land in certain ways, and the owner, William Goodwin, who bought the area in 1937, may have built some of the structures. Some people believe the site has a connection to Europe before Columbus arrived, but this idea is not supported by real evidence. An archaeologist named David Starbuck said, "Many people think Goodwin may have built much of what is seen at the site today."

The site was first called Mystery Hill by William Goodwin. This name was used until 1982, when it was changed to "America's Stonehenge," a name first used in a news article in the 1960s. The change was made to show that the site is an ancient place, not just a roadside attraction. The name comes from Stonehenge in England, but there is no proof that the two places are connected.

The site is listed on New Hampshire Historical Marker No. 72 under the name Mystery Hill.

History

Archaeologists used radio-carbon dating of charcoal found at the site to determine that humans lived there 4,000 years ago.

In 1982, David Stewart-Smith, who was in charge of restoration at Mystery Hill, led an excavation of a large stone, called a megalith, found in a stone quarry near the main site. His team worked under the guidance of the New Hampshire state archaeologist and found hundreds of stone chips and flakes. They believed these were signs that tools were being made using methods used by American indigenous people. However, no exact date could be determined. Archaeologist Curtis Runnels said, "No Bronze Age items have been found there. … In fact, no European artifacts from that time have been found anywhere in the New World."

The surface of the stone shows signs that it was shaped using percussion techniques, which means it was carved by indigenous stone workers using tools, not the metal tools used by European settlers. Some people think the structure might be an accurate calendar that could predict lunar and solar events in North America.

Remains of a Native American wigwam were found in the area, and a replica is displayed near the trail. Two fire pits nearby are about 2,000 years old. A canoe from around 300 years ago is on display in the museum. Native American tools and pottery have also been discovered at the site.

The site first appeared in writing in the 1907 History of Salem, N.H.:

"Jonathan Pattee's Cave. He had a house in these woods 70 years ago; took town paupers before the town farm was bought. This is a wild but beautiful spot, among rough boulders and soft pines, about which the most weird and fantastic tale might be woven. There are several caves still intact, which the owner used for storage purposes."

Many believe Pattee built the site in the nineteenth century. No clear evidence of European artifacts from before Columbus arrived has been found there.

The site’s history is unclear partly because of William Goodwin, who believed the location proved that Irish monks (called the Culdees) had lived there long before Columbus. He tried to share this idea and rearranged many stones to support his theory. The site was also changed by stone quarrying and by others who moved stones to what they thought were their original positions. Goodwin may have been responsible for much of what is seen today. Many stones have drill marks from quarrying.

The idea that Irish people came to North America before 1500 comes from the story of St. Brendan, an Irish priest who was said to have sailed to North America in the 500s or 600s. This idea led Goodwin and others to believe the site was built by Irish monks. However, no archaeological evidence supports this claim.

In 2019, the site was damaged using power tools. On March 4, 2021, New Hampshire State Police arrested Mark L. Russo, a member of the online group "QAnon," and charged him with criminal mischief. Two messages were carved into a stone called the "sacrificial table": the QAnon slogan "WWG1WGA" (meaning "Where we go one, we go all") and "IAMMARK," Russo’s Twitter handle. A researcher named Chris Walters found photos of the site and items later found by police by searching for Russo’s pseudonym. Later, it was discovered that two QAnon followers had a son who had died. Both believed the "sacrificial table" was real and that a worldwide conspiracy led by Hillary Clinton had caused their son’s death to extract adrenochrome, a substance they thought could renew life.

The "Sacrificial Stone"

There is a stone called a "sacrificial stone" that has grooves on its surface. Some people believe these grooves were used to channel blood, but the stone closely resembles "lye-leaching stones" found on many old farms. These stones were used to extract lye from wood ashes, which was the first step in making soap. The "sacrificial stone" could also have been a cider press bed stone, a common tool used by colonial farmers in New England. The grooves in the stone helped collect the cider during the pressing process.

In popular culture

American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft was interested in ancient stone sites in New England. He visited Mystery Hill between 1928 and the 1930s. Some people believe this site inspired his story "The Dunwich Horror." However, scholars think Lovecraft visited too late to have influenced the 1929 story.

In his book America BC: Ancient Settlers in the New World, published in 1976 and revised in 1986, Barry Fell claimed that Mystery Hill had signs of people living there before European arrival. He pointed to the way stones were placed based on astronomical patterns and suggested some stones had writing in a style called Ogham, possibly from Phoenician people. However, Barry Fell was a marine biologist, not an expert in archaeology or ancient writing. Many experts believe his work is not reliable.

The site has been featured or mentioned on several television programs, including: