Chilling Stone Carving Left by Natives Found in Small Hudson Valley Town

Just seeing the stone peaked my curiosity but reading the lore behind it gave me goosebumps.

If there's one thing I've learned during my short time here living in the Hudson Valley it's that there is a ton of strange objects and landmarks in the area.

I'm always down for learning facts about the Hudson Valley and finding odd things. The weirder the better. Whether it's history with Benedict Arnold's Hudson Valley ties, creepy tree stumps with smiling faces or where you've got the best odds to get abducted by aliens there really isn't much that's taboo for me. I'm fascinated about al the things that make up this place I call home.

Just where can you see this fascinating rock and what exactly does it mean?

There's a theory that these carvings either resemble shamans and chiefs or godlike figures that crossed paths with Native Americans over 300 years ago.

According to research from local author Mike Adamovic of Hudson Valley History & Mystery, these stones are called petroglyphs and there are several located throughout the Hudson Valley. A petroglyph is picture art unlike a hieroglyph is used to represent words.

This particular rock is known as the Wilderstein Petroglyph. Wilderstein translates to “wild man’s stone” in German. The rock is kind of hard to see at first but it's located at the Wilderstein Historic Site in Rhinebeck according to Adamovic.

Though this rock is believed to represent a native shaman because of the headdress there are other petroglyphs that are thought to depict early settlers from the 1600's.  With the clothing and objects that these settlers and explorers would have appeared as gods to them which is amazing when you think about it.

Have you been to the Wilderstein Historic Site? Have you seen these kind of rocks before in the Hudson Valley?