A mysterious megalithic structure with colossal boulders guarding over a tunnel and two stone-roofed chambers near Haggetts Pond in Andover has been called the work of 11th-century Irish Christian missionaries and even attributed to ancient Algonquins.
This construction, popularly known as Turtle Mound, displays contours resembling the limbs, shell, and head of a turtle and has been the subject of great theories, debates, and speculation from the late 1930s on. Whoever built it used Herculean strength and inspired ingenuity.
What had engulfed the townspeople in a “who made it?” mystery turned out to be a story about a man who was “truly a child of nature in his love for all pertaining to it.” (Andover Townsman, 1899). It’s a story about a naturist who raised trees, shrubs, and plants for market, and also raised stones for show.
“It was constructed between 1860 and 1880 by Paul B. Follansbee and his son John as an elaborate Victorian era landscaping feature called a ‘rockery’ better known today as a ‘rock garden.’ It was one of a number of attractions on the estate used to bring in customers to their nursery business which sold domestic as well as imported species of trees, shrubs, and plants,” wrote James Gage in “A History of the Paul B. Follansbee Rockery, (a/k/a “Turtle Mound”), Andover, Massachusetts”.
I had the opportunity to steep for a couple of days in the magnificence of Follansbee Rockery while cleaning the nasty invasive plants overwhelming it, thanks to a volunteer opportunity with AVIS — owners and maintainers of 33 reservations in Andover.
I got a front-row seat to an exceptional display of mind over matter, an exercise of archaic wizardry still casting a potent spell on all who contemplate it. The stones bear the signature of craftsmen endowed with artistic extravagance and a flair for the unusual.
Follansbee got the itch to build his own rockery when he was 49 years old. He was an amateur geologist and had a collection of both small and large geologically interesting specimens that were integrated into and displayed on the rockery.
The primary stimulus for the development of a rockery was the interest in and availability of specialized plants and shrubs that required special soil and climatic conditions. The shallow soil typical of the feature and the radiant heat of sun-warmed rocks permitted the growth of vegetation that often would not flourish in other areas of the garden.
The arrangement of the rocks showcased more plant variety than any other garden arrangement.
Standing 5 feet, 2 inches and being extremely stout and strong, Follansbee used a homemade capstan cranked by a long lever and an inclined ramp to construct the rockery that has boulders weighing up to 3 tons. The entire structure is nearly 120 feet long, 60 feet wide, and 10 feet tall.
Nineteenth century rockeries were largely confined to estates and nursery businesses. Follansbee’s stood out for its bold style with “an ornamental effect, as well as to afford a happy home for the choicer gems among hardy plants. … It astonishes the spectator to be told that the work could be done by such means.” (Andover Townsman,1899)
Follansbee labored 20 years to complete the rockery by the time he was 69 and he would go on to have 20 more years taking pleasure in exhibiting to visitors the results of his tireless industry and research.
His extensive nursery featured choice fruits; great varieties of flowers, trees, and shrubs; the rockery; a full rigged miniature ship; and a large collection of Indian relics found on the farm together with many other objects of interest.
Follansbee Rockery is truly a sanctuary of natural beauty and tranquility — a place to explore a monument of artistic inspiration, a testament to the determination and strength of the human spirit, a tribute to the power of mind over matter.
Dr. William Kolbe, an Andover resident, is a retired high school and college teacher and former Peace Corps volunteer in Tonga and El Salvador. He can be reached at bila.kolbe9@gmail.com.