Upton Chamber

Upton Cave

Useful Information

Location:	18 Elm St, Upton, MA 01568. Above Mill Pond, Upton. Upton Heritage Park. (42.176007, -71.597823)
Open:	no restrictions. [2025]
Fee:	free. [2025]
Classification:	Enigmatic Cavern
Light:	bring torch
Dimension:	Ø=3.65 m, H=3.35 m.
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:	Joseph A. Citro (2005): Weird New England, Sterling (September 25, 2005), ISBN: 1402733305. Hardcover, 272pp, amazon.com
Address:	Historical Commission, 1 Main St, Upton, MA 01568. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1936	William Goodwin purchased the site and protected it by a fence.
1950	leased by Robert Stone.
1956	purchased by Robert Stone.
JUN-2004	land purchased by Gerald Cuccione and Navinchandar Parthasarathy.
APR-2012	Upton Heritage Park opened to the public.
2015	the U.S. Geological Survey examines the structures and dates them with optically stimulated luminescence (OSL).

Description

In the center of New England, a landscape formed by very old orogenies and the glaciers of the last Ice Age, only very few and small natural caves exist. The rocks are gneiss, granite, marble and slate, the caves are tectonic or neotectonic, and thus very small. But there are numerous enigmatic caves, which provide discomfort. They are artificial, made of huge slabs of the typical local rocks, especially granite, and probably they were built because of the lack of natural caves. The mystery is when they were built, by whom and what for. They are mentioned in books like Weird New England and different people have contrary opinions, none of them supported by facts.

Mystery Hill, Upton Chamber, Calendar I, Calendar II, Gungywamp and Druid’s Hill are the names of the most well known of about 300 artificial rock constructions. The most astonishing fact is, that they resemble celtic remains from the British Isles. Looking like Stonehenge or Newgrange, these places have an ancient touch. However, there was no content of any kind found inside, which would allow to date them. For a long time the best age estimation possible was between 300 and 3,000 years old. In 2015 the U.S. Geological Survey examined those structures and used optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) for dating them. The results are between 1350 and 1625, at this time the Nipmuc people lived in the area. But the cave also lies along the Great Trail, a famed indigenous trade route which went from Delaware to Canada.

Upton Chamber is one of the largest and most perfectly built stone chambers in New England. The entrance tunnel is 1.80 m high and 4.25 m long, and leads into a huge chamber. This room is 3.65 m in diameter and 3.35 m high. The walls are small quarried stones, topped by a ceiling of several large oval stones weighing several tons each. The whole construction is underground inside a hill, most likely it was first built and then covered with earth. Similar chambers with entrance tunnel are known from Newgrange in Ireland.

A rather obvious and still hard to believe story explains the construction with an expedition of Culdee Monks from Ireland. There are stories in Ireland, for example about the Brendan voyage, telling about Irish monks visiting America. Nevertheless, there is no evidence at all. And of course: the Irish siblings are at least 4,000 years old, an age which is neither assumed for the first trip to America nor for the construction of those New England megalith sites. Many people believe those structures were built by the Stone Age culture of the Native American living here. Similar cultural basis could result in similar architecture. Others believe they are much younger and were built by the very first settlers in the 16th and 17th century. The settlers brought knowledge about megalithic sites with them, and built it because it was a pragmatic solution with the limited technology and resources in the new land. So we have the following theories: pre-Columbus European (Celtic) explorers, spiritual sites of Native Americans, early American farmers for agricultural purposes, or 19th century leather tanner. And as their website says: "Each theory has its advocates."