Southeastern Pennsylvania is littered with places where rocks ring like bells when struck with a hammer. These include the Stony Garden (Haycock, Bucks County), the Devil's Race Course (Franklin County), and several others in the South Mountain region and at Pottsdown. By far the most famous and studied site is in Upper Black Eddy in Bucks County. It is located about a mile to the west of the Deleware River near the New Jersey state line. Sitting in a forested area, the Ringing Rocks appear in a field that has no vegetation except for lichens. Ten feet thick and seven acres around, the rocks are composed of diabase, in other words part of the Earth's basic crustal structure. There is absolutely nothing strange or anomolous about them, except for the fact that when struck hard they ring. In June of 1890 Dr. Ott, along with a brass band, played several songs on the rocks for the enjoyment of the appreciative Buckwampum Historical Society. Ott learned what other investigators have since concluded: the rocks do not need to be in their natural place to ring nor do they need to be wholly intact. Curiously though made up of the same materials, not all of the Ringing Rocks ring, in fact studies show that only about 30% of them do so. Though this is more than likely a natural phenomenon, there has never been a satisfacory explanation proposed. In 1965 geologist Richard Fass of Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, conducted laboratory experiments using sensitive equiptment. He learned that when a ringing rock was struck, a series of subaudable frequencies were produced, and that these combined or added up to a tone which could be heard by the human ear. He could not offer any physical cause. Some writers have made incredible if not occult explanations for the Ringing Rocks, asserting that something about the rock fields spook animals, even insects which cause them to keep their distance. There is nothing particularly mysterious about this according to Michael Frizzel, since the area is barren and hot, thus generally inhospitable to wild life. Make of it what you will. |
