Preservation in Centre County

Category A includes those sites which have ten or fewer stones or which no longer show any visible trace of their existence.

These sites range from the cemeteries which have been buried under farms or golf courses many years ago, to sites with ten stones in wonderful condition and a landowner who has been taking care of the site's lawn care and landscape management for several years.

These sites I have placed into this category for a few reasons:

• their small size and number of stones
• the loss of the site's integrity over the years
• their general need for one-time visits by volunteers, rather than the need for caretaker groups

The sites in this category are all smaller sites with only a few stones, as a result they all should be generally easy to map out formally and prepare a detailed survey card for the site, including original boundaries for the site if no longer visible.  Since there are so many "No Trace" sites in this group, much of the survey card will be based on the written historical record.

Several of these sites, such as the one at Wolf's Store, have also lost much of their historical integrity. That is to say, they can no longer be comprehended in the same manner with the loss of original surroundings.  Wolf's Store, for example has lost all but 1 stone, losing 12 in the past 20 years.

136 - Wolf's Store @ God's Missionary Church

The one remaining stone is still important, but can no longer be representative of the area since we no longer know what the other stones in the site may have looked like, what materials they may have been constructed out of, etc. To save this last stone is also demanding, since we know that the site has already lost several. The only options are to move the stone, which since it has already lost much of its integrity is still a fitting way of preserving it, or to fully document its existence, map the site, photograph it, and keep our eyes on it and cross our fingers. I prefer the latter since moving the marker will skew whatever site one would move it to unless carefully marked, and also because the stones do have a relationship with place, regardless of the loss of its integrity through the loss of the other stones needed for comparison.

Some of these Category A sites, however, are still in wonderful shape. The sites at Tadpole and Harpster's Farm are still being taken care of by the landowner. As such, they do not need any form of regular care by a volunteer caretaker. But, as is the case at Tadpole, some of these stones have fallen and the landowners have no means, or no experience in, lifting up fragile 200 pound tombstones. But, since they have fallen, some of the faces of the stones are eroding, (if facing up) and at times the weights of the stones which have fallen will eventually cause them to split apart. In these cases the site should not only be carefully mapped and surveyed, but careful consideration should also go into various measures of restoration regarding the stones which appear to be in danger.