Stone Circle Graces Brewster Trail

July 08, 2026

by Andy Kirkaldy

BREWSTER – Brewster’s town-owned John Wing Trail, which runs from Route 6A to Cape Cod Bay across Wing Island, offers in one place much of what can be found on the town’s other 16 public trails: diverse plant and wildlife, archeological and historical interest and a cross-section of Cape scenery: salt marsh, streams, forest and beach.

But only the John Wing Trail has a stone circle designed and installed in 1997 to replicate solar calendars once used by the Cape’s Indigenous People, the Wampanoags and Nausets, to track the solstices and equinoxes; in other words, the seasons and times of the year. Indigenous peoples also used lunar calendars, according to experts.

How did it get there? The circle, with eight standing stones between about two and five feet high and a bench, all in a clearing off the trail’s east side, is the brainchild of Brewster landscape and environmental architect Jeff Thibodeau.

Thibodeau spent most of his childhood in Brewster and now lives a few stone throws away from the John Wing Trail, which heads north from 6A with two points of access, Drummer Boy Park and the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History.

Access to the John Wing Trail is free from the park, 0.3 mile west on the highway, or is included in admission to the popular museum, which has parking right next to the trailhead (see related story).

Thibodeau said that he was happy to enhance the trail with an installation he believes can allow visitors to contemplate nature, the island’s Indigenous past, and even the sun, moon and stars.

“My connection to the town’s community and natural heritage runs deep,” he said.

Thibodeau, a busy musician as well as a landscape professional, said the idea for the stone circle, or henge, grew out of his study in a post-graduate program in “sacred space design and construction,” a calling for which he did an apprenticeship in Vermont.

He concluded the program by designing the solar calendar for the trail. The town, which had conserved the land, approved its design and installation after Thibodeau said he made every effort to make the henge authentic.

“I did some research on sacred Native American spaces of this nature,” Thibodeau said. “In order to be 100 percent accurate and respectful of the culture, I did meet with the Wampanoag tribal leaders at the time, and I did incorporate what I learned from them into this creation.”

Thibodeau received plenty of help installing the circle in a clearing he named Sachemus Field after a historic Wampanoag leader. The town of Brewster contributed the stones. Thibodeau said they were reclaimed granite curbing stones.

Local farmer Nick Rodday, now deceased, stepped forward and used a horse-drawn sled, with help from his son and farmhands, to drag the stones one at a time across the marsh to the site.

Once the stones were there, Thibodeau and a team of volunteers set them up in places Thibodeau had carefully determined would measure the spring and fall equinoxes and spring and winter solstices. Equinoxes are the times of the year when daytime and night are nearly equal, while solstices mark the longest and shortest days of the year measured by sunshine.

Thibodeau laughed when he said some familiar with the project at the time called it “pebble henge.”

Thibodeau wrote the language on the first sign describing the stone circle. It does not reveal details about its construction or age.

Thibodeau said the sign has been revised by volunteers over the years, and that it remains useful. It reads, in part:

“This solar calendar at Sachemus Field demonstrates how Native Americans might have kept track of the seasons throughout the year, just as we do with our monthly calendars and the numbered days.

“Standing in the center of the circle, one can observe that the sun on June 21st — the summer solstice — rises over the most northerly of the three stones on the east side. As the year progresses through the summer and fall, the sun rises further toward south each day. By December 21st — the winter solstice — the sun is rising over the most southerly stone of the three.”

Thibodeau said in designing and overseeing the installation of the stone circle, one of his central goals was to honor the past and to inspire contemplation.

“I wanted to create a sacred space, a place where people could come and connect with the earth and the cosmos about and around them and understand how it’s all connected,” he said. “The intention was really to help people connect with the spirit of the place, the earth and sky, and deepen our connection with the planet.”