Cairns: Messengers in Stone

Praise for author David B. Williams: “Makes stones sing” --Kirkus Reviews“Williams’s lively mixture of hard science and piquant lore is sure to fire the readers’ curiosity” --Publisher’s Weekly. Part history, part folklore, part geology. Features charming black-and-white illustrations from meadow trails to airy mountaintops and wide-open desert, cairns -- those seemingly random stacks of rocks -- are surprisingly rich in stories and meaning. For thousands of years cairns have been used by people to connect to the landscape and communicate with others, and are often an essential guide to travelers. Cairns, manmade rock piles can indicate a trail, mark a grave, serve as an altar or shrine, reveal property boundaries or sacred hunting grounds, and even predict astronomical activity.