This Stone Bound marks the boundary of a County Highway. The highway lines were created in 1916 and the stone was set around that time. Over the years that it has been in place there must have been attempts to destroy it as it shows considerable damage. The drilled hole marking the center has been obliterated and it is otherwise barely recognizable.
First of all it is a crime in Massachusetts to intentionally injure, remove or destroy a monument erected for the purpose of designating the boundaries of a town or a tract of land. See Commonwealth of Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 266, section 94 for the full text.
The condition of the monument in the picture indicates that it was most likely cut with a concrete saw in an attempt to break it up. The reason may never be clear and the person responsible will most likely not be caught. However, through the years in its existence this monument has been relied upon for descriptions of boundaries in deeds, as a land mark and for the reconstruction or maintenance of the highway.
It also may never be clear to people that the physical position of any survey monument is much more important than the mathematical references to its existence in deeds or on maps. Without physical marks on the ground only assumptions can be made to its precise location and the relation to boundary lines on the maps and those described in deeds become obfuscated.
