The Southwest ridges have been greatly reduced in size by extensive farming and natural erosion. They average about 2 feet in height today but may have been as much as 5 feet high when the Poverty Point people built them 3,000 years ago. The Southwest sector of the ridges is sometimes called the industrial part of town because strong evidence shows that artifacts were manufactured there. Unfinished stages called blanks and preforms of beads, pendants, plummets, and other artifacts have been found in this area. Most of the micro-blade industry is located there as well, including cores, blades, and Jaketown perforators, which were probably used to work wood, bone, and antler objects. Reworking of broken artifacts is also evident. A low depression in the trees on the north side of the tram road, known as the Southwest aisle way, separates the Southwest and West sectors of the ridges, and from near the center of the plaza on the first day of winter, the setting sun aligns with this aisle way.