America's Stonehenge

America's Stonehenge in Salem, New Hampshire, is a thirty-acre privately owned archaeological site whose significance lies in its layered history rather than any proven link to England's Stonehenge. Evidence from radiocarbon dating and excavations shows human and Indigenous presence there stretching back thousands of years, including toolmaking debris, pottery, a wigwam with fire pits, and a canoe. Many archaeologists conclude that much of the visible stonework instead reflects eighteenth- and nineteenth-century farm use, quarrying, and alterations by owner William Goodwin, who promoted discredited theories of pre-Columbian Irish monks. The site endures as a blend of archaeology, colonial landscape, tourism, and modern mythmaking.

Salem, New Hampshire · United States