Abby Raeder, vice president of Chester’s Vermont Institute of Contemporary Arts, was driving recently down Route 30 near the Stratton access road when she noticed something unusual: hundreds of rocks stacked into countless cairns rising out of a nearby brook.

Captivated by the scene, she stopped the car, got out and waded through the water. She wrote about the cairns, and their creator, a young man named Grant, on the VTica blog. Grant told Raeder he started building the stone structures after his beloved Bull Mastiff, General, died a few months ago. “I needed to do something for him,” he told her.

Unfortunately, the monument was fleeting. Raeder reported in a follow-up post this morning that someone who lives near the brook — and was apparently peeved about the traffic the site was causing — had destroyed the cairns.

“Word of the cairn destruction spread quickly, and now I am receiving countless responses in support of Grant,” Raeder wrote. Indeed, one commenter left this message: “We will help Grant rebuild.”

Photo contributed by Abby Raeder

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Megan James began writing for Seven Days in 2010, first as Associate Arts Editor. She later became an editor for Seven Days' monthly parenting magazine, Kids VT, and is currently a freelance contributor.

6 replies on “Somebody Destroys the Cairns a Southern Vermont Man Built to Honor His Dog”

  1. Surely, if traffic was a concern for whomever wrecked the cairns, their destructiveness will backfire. I’ll be going to the spot on Sunday to build one of my own. I imagine there’ll already have been many before me to do the same.

  2. i will come rebuild, in honor of my boy Rocky. I’d heard about it being destroyed at work today from a woman I told about it yesterday…the entire office was saddened.

  4. There are so many people with nothing better to do in their lives than destroy things! SICK!

  5. There are so many people with nothing better to do in their lives than destroy things! SICK!
    this is not disqus_mt……I am awildrose60

  6. Cairns may be fleeting as are the lives of dogs. What a beautiful tribute to a beloved friend. No one can destroy the idea. Build one today for your dog and for Grant and General. Thanks for the photo of this breathtaking display of love.

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