We just returned from a trip in which we travelled on Hwy 17 in Northern Ontario. It was the first time I had been up there since childhood and I was, still am actually, in awe of the serenity and beauty along this route. (We saw two moose, a cow and her calf, crossing the highway early one morning. They ambled down the ditch on the other side and just disappeared into the trees. They were beautiful.)
Along the way we noticed little stone altar thingies placed at random intervals atop the rock ledges that border the road where they blasted through to make room for the highway. They were piles of stones in two side-by-side towers with a larger rock placed on top, covering both towers, forming a kind of roof. Each one might have been between six to twelve inches high.
Sometimes there would be five or six of them in one spot. Often they were in places that left us wondering how anyone ever climbed up an almost sheer rock face to put one there. During the six or so hours we drove along this highway we saw hundreds of these things, on both sides of the road, but never once saw anyone making one.
Does anyone know what these things are or why people place them along the side of the highway? What is their significance?
They are variations on inukshuit (singular: inukshuk). Some information here and more here.
I think they’re mostly made nowadays by bored hitchhikers, surveyors, etc. They appear all over Canada.
Thank you,** Pipeliner **
The second link you gave does not seem to work but the first one explains what inukshuk is and gives me a word to google. I tried searching on just about every variation of “rock formations” “stone altars” “rock thing-a-majiggies” you can think of and got nowhere.
Thanks for the information.
We just returned from a trip to Canada this weekend as well, and I was considering posting the same question. The ones we saw were on Hwy. 502 in Ontario, and a few on Hwy 11 from 502 to Fort Frances. Our Canadian hosts said they were “some sort of Indian thing.” We also had the theory about bored hikers.
Slight but related hijack: I also saw little stone altars all over Maui, especially in remote areas of the north coast (in one field above a cliff there were literally hundreds of the things). They sound awfully similar to the ones described above. Anybody have the straight dope on these?
The inukshuk is featured on the flag of the newest Canadian territory, Nunavit.
Wee pic at flag.com:
http://www.flags.com/uncanadapro.htm