Illinois Barn Rock Wall It seems a lonely fortress in the dead of winter. Stone masonry originated with dry-stacked stonework where the walls are carefully laid up without mortar. Gravity served as the cement that held everything together. For no expense but the labor, farmers built miles upon miles of stone fences. The task was monumental. They had to remove trees, brush, and brambles from the land so they could pasture livestock and plant crops. This exposed acres of rock and stone that had to be cleared. They soon realized, here was the raw material with which they could build walls to divide ownership. Separate pastures from home sites, fields from wood lots, and foundations for houses, barns, wagon sheds. Stone walls are works of art. Not only do they have utility; they have grace and beauty. Some have fallen, collapsed from age and neglect. Others are as solid as the day they were built. They mark out boundaries on the winter fields. Those wandering around these fields can imagine the portrait of a forgotten family who once lived and labored there. Maybe those rugged individuals who first settled this country had a bit of the artist in their souls. The stone walls they left behind seem to say so.