Why the Dry Stone Conservancy?   

The Dry Stone Conservancy (formerly the Dry-Stone Masonry Institute of America, Inc.) was formally incorporated in 1996 as a 501(c)3, to preserve dry stone structures in Kentucky's world-famous Bluegrass landscape, to advance the dry stone masonry craft, to promote heritage tourism, and to develop a national center for training and expertise.   

The need to protect the unique and distinctive features of the world-famous Bluegrass landscape reached a critical point in 1995.  Historic rock fences were disappearing at an alarming rate - gobbled up by road widening, development, and neglect - and were hauled away, buried, or ground into road rock.  There was a severe shortage of skilled drystone masons compounded by scarcity of technical information, construction specifications, and engineering data.   

To counter this problem, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and Kentucky Heritage Council sponsored a series of training classes to teach world-standard rock fence construction and to provide skilled masons for the relocation of rock fences bordering historic roadways.  Due to the lack of Kentucky drystone instructors, training personnel was provided by the Dry Stone Walling Association of Great Britain. Television documentaries, news articles, and public lectures created widespread interest in forming a nonprofit organization dedicated to all aspects of drystone masonry on a broad scale.

The DSC program includes six major and overlapping areas:  

1.  Training and certification of drystone masons (job-training,workforce development)
2.  Restoration and construction-training projects
3.  Local, state, and federal government and non-government agency collaboration (tourism, development, preservation)
4.  Public Education (schools, universities, technical schools, county organizations)
5.  Research, publication, collections, and archives
6.  Development (fundraising, financing, and grants)

Since 1996, news of DSC’s expertise has spread.  The National Trust for Historic Preservation funded the first publicity brochure, and the National Center for Preservation Training and Technology funded two how-to training videos.  The DSC has conducted training and project supervision for the National Park Service in eleven states and has provided advice and on-site consultations in twenty-seven other states, contributing to work in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, engineering, conservation, preservation, archaeology, history, geography, job-development, and tourism.   Some of these projects are listed in the section entitled Selected Training and Preservation Projects.  

To foster interest in rock fences and the dry stone craft, DSC presents programs to school children, UK landscape architecture students, Governor’s Scholars, and the general public.  The DSC has published four videos and two training handbooks, one of which required five printings.  The Conservancy has received seven awards for community service.    

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A Word about Words:

There is no preferred universal usage for the words dry stone and drystone. We endeavor, therefore, to use drystone as an adjective, as in “drystone walls” or “drystone techniques;” while using dry stone as a modifier and noun, as in “the structure is dry stone.”  Sometimes the choice is problematic and the terms are used interchangeably.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Additional information regarding the history, background, and program of the Dry Stone Conservancy is located in:

Murray-Wooley, Carolyn and Karl Raitz.  Rock Fences of the Bluegrass University Press of Kentucky.  1992.

Murray-Wooley, Carolyn and Richard Tufnell.  The DRY Stone Age: the Dry Stone Conservancy Promotes an Ancient Craft. CRM [Cultural Resource Management]. 1997.  Vol 20, no 12, pp 17-19

Wooley, Jane M. "The Logic of Stone".  Landscape Architecture . July 2000.  pp 36-41, 84-85.

Wooley, Jane M. and Carolyn Murray-Wooley.  "Dry Stone Conservancy Promotes and Teaches an Ancient Craft".  Newsletter: Alliance for Historic Landscape Preservation . Fall 1997.  p 5.  

Please also see our Publications for videos and manuals.

Additionally, the DCS is proud of its mutually supportive association with the Dry Stone Walling Association of Great Britain, whose web address is www.dswa.org.uk.

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