Could this road leading up the east side of Cape Dauphin to the ruins on the summit be a modern road and not, as the book suggests, an ancient construction with manmade stone walls lining its sides?
Some critics have claimed that the road leading up the side of Cape Dauphin, shown in these two photographs, is a modern construction that was built either in 1952 by a volunteer fire brigade to access a fire on the summit or in 1989 by a local gravel and stone company, Kelly Rock, that hoped to crush much of the stone on the summit of Cape Dauphin into gravel that could be used for paving highways. However, the road is visible on this aerial photograph of the east side of Cape Dauphin taken in 1931. Therefore, the road existed before the 1952 fire or the 1989 gravel company. Both the fire brigade and the gravel company may have altered it, but the road existed before they used it.
Moreover, an archaeologist who visited the site in 2010 claimed that the walls lining the road at the summit were clearly manmade and not the result of plows pushing gravel to each side, as some critics have claimed.
Two photographs of the road that climbs the east side of the site.
An aerial photograph of the east side of Cape Dauphin taken in June 1953.
The same 1953 aerial photograph with the road that climbs up the cape highlighted.