Deep beneath the site lie Camp Nelson, Oregon, and Tyrone Formations, which are mined for limestone products. Forming a backdrop to the Boils is an exposed limestone shelf, showing the layers of rock that allows formation of the conduits necessary to produce springs. Culture History Old photographs of the land around McConnell Springs when it was a stock farm show rock fences bordering the pastures, fields and barnyard. We cannot find records telling exactly when these fences were built, but most rock fences that surround pastures and farm yards in Kentucky were built in the early 1800s. Their construction matches stone walls in the British Isles, from whence most of the ancestors of Kentucky settlers came.
Rock fences have no mortar.
Gravity and frictional resistance hold them together. The sides slope inward from the bottom up, so that as the ground freezes and thaws, and the fence sides settle, gravity pulls them toward the fence center. Tie-rocks extending all the way through the fence from one side to the other help lock the two sides together. Although each fence yard weighs approximately one ton, a thick, wide foundation course prevents undue settlement. Dry-stone fences last much longer than those built with mortar because freezing water and ground movement do not push the rocks out of place.