These structures, called marsh staddles, once dotted the Scarborough marsh during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Even though the top sections have been exposed to years of weather and tides, the bottom is still strong and several remaining staddles can be seen today because the sod of the marsh is such that no wood rots in it.

The basic design was placement of ash or cedar logs in about a 10 foot circle. Cord grass was put on top of the logs and made a platform for adding salt water hay on top of it. That hay (cone shaped) was stacked in such a way (like roof thatching) that it would stay. Sometimes, the hay might be circled with rope which was staked. This apparently kept the wind from destroying a given hay cone. The completed staddle would be about 16-18 feet high.