Cool, and nice photograph. Any idea what the mark means?

Not a clue. I mean, I suppose it could be a stonecutter's mark--a stamp of identification applied by the quarry involved as a sort of advertising: "If you like this fat block of granite, visit Square-Mark Quarry!" I know that masons themselves sometimes mark stones to indicate their intended place in a structure, so this also might mean "this end up", or something similar. But normally one does that kind of thing with a grease pencil or a piece of chalk, not a heavy chisel. So maybe the most likely explanation is that whoever built the embankment wanted something to remember it by. "Hepzibah Graves Was Here."

Thanks for the response, I think my imagination was on overload and I thought maybe there was some underground secret history of strange marks, like the colonial equivilant to hobo code. Appreciate the images and updates to your site.

Hi Mike,

I came across this book and thought it might interest you:

"Sermons in Stone: The Stone Walls of New England and New York (Paperback)" by Susan Allport. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/039331202X/ref=wl_it_dp/103-9588090-8907015?%5Fencoding=UTF8&colid=VL393L6GFXZX&coliid=I2QD5KCV4G1KJW&v=glance&n=283155

Cool!