National Walling Competition held at Lower Howard’s Creek

A huge crowd attend­ed the 14^th Annual National Walling Competition on October 2–4 at the Lower Howard’s Creek Natural & Heritage Preserve.  The event was spon­sored by the Dry Stone Conservancy, whose mis­sion is to pre­serve his­toric dry­s­tone struc­tures and to pro­mote the craft of dry-laid stone mason­ry.  This year, the event was cospon­sored by The Stone Trust of Vermont, which has a sim­i­lar mission.

Jane Wooley, a cofounder of the Conservancy, informed me that there were 39 entries, includ­ing three women.  I count­ed par­tic­i­pants from twen­ty states, includ­ing Washington, Arizona, and Alaska, as well as one from Ontario, Canada.  The old­est entry was 74, the youngest 17.  Each com­peti­tor had to build a mea­sured length of stone fence in eight hours; they were judged on the qual­i­ty of their work. 

Executive Director of the Conservancy, Russell Waddell, explained how the com­pe­ti­tion was scored.  Four judges mon­i­tored the con­struc­tion process from begin­ning to end.  The first step involved tear­ing down more than 200 feet of the old stone fence lin­ing the Preserve park­ing lot.   Judges rat­ed the prepa­ra­tion of the foun­da­tion, the build­ing of the first and sec­ond lifts, the use of tie stones, the cov­er course, and cop­ing.  The wall had to meet the spec­i­fied bat­ter and wall dimensions.

The com­pe­ti­tion was divid­ed into three class­es: pro­fes­sion­al, ama­teur, and novice, which required con­struc­tion of sev­en, six, and five feet of fence, respec­tive­ly.  The grand prize win­ner in the pro­fes­sion­al class was Zachary Goebelt of Stow, Ohio.

Other events of the week­end includ­ed stone fence work­shops and lec­tures.  Winchester’s own Stuart Joynt gave an arch-build­ing demon­stra­tion.  Steven Martin from the Kentucky Geological Survey gave a talk on lime­stone geol­o­gy.  Patrick Lewis brought a group down from the Filson Club in Louisville.  Clare Sipple led a hike to view the Preserve’s stone fences and the Jonathan Bush house, mill, and dam.  Among her many oth­er roles dur­ing the com­pe­ti­tion, Preserve Manager Karis Pumphrey pre­pared meals for the event.  Two Bluegrass bands enter­tained the crowd before and after the awards ceremony.