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Things you have found in the woods!

Started by slowzuki, December 01, 2003, 09:04:44 AM

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Stephen_Wiley

Just a little off topic.........but hopefully you guys will bear with me, as this thread reminded me of this:

Don, a former good friend (he died 1999 at 83yrs.) who spent his entire life in the coastal woods here in Oregon as a faller / bucker and forester; once relayed this story about a coworker.

Seems the fellow did not have much patience with saws and their maintenance. He also did not have much control over his tongue.

Due to his physical stature, which was above average in size and build, no one had the desire to try and 'calm' him in his fits of rage.

On more than one occasion his saw would stop and fail to start. This was followed by loud cussing and very explicit descriptions to which he labled the saw, ending with the saw being flung over the canyon and down the canyon bouncing off of stumps and rocks. ::)

Eventually, he or a coworker would make the effort to retrieve the saw.......usually having to replace the bar or sometimes only be able to salvage parts. Due to the steepness of the coastal hills the saw could easily be thrown, bounced and end up several hundred yards away. For those of you who have never left the flat lands of the midwest, hiking down or up one of these canyons is a work out to say the least.

My friend (Don) who was then the "Bull buck" of the crew arrived to work early one morning to find this fellow had bought a new falling saw. But it was'nt very long before Don heard this fellow near the back of the crummy cuss up a storm and throwing things.

Don walked to the back of the crummy where this fellow and his new saw were.  Don grabbed his new saw and flung it over the canyon.

This fellow immediately was speechless........finnaly he asked Don ' why'  he did that.  Don responded that since it had occurred so many times before.....that he wanted the pleasure and experience of knowing the feeling of flinging a saw down the canyon. :D :D

Seems this fellow never threw a saw after that. In fact Don said he seemed to grow up a bit after that day. :)

Well  if any of you are ever hunting or scouting the Oregon Coast range. There are falling saws to be found yet. As he did not retrieve all that were thrown.   8)    
" If I were two faced, do you think I would be wearing this one?"   Abe Lincoln

Stephen_Wiley

Back to topic,

While working in Eastern Oregon, I and a few friends came across an area where pioneers had to reduce their wagon loads in order to continue their journey. Due to the steep grade of the Blue Mountains.

We found china, pewter pots, silverware, knives made with buckhorns, shells with date stamp in the 1800s, glass bottles with glass tops and asundry of other items some dated back to the 1600's.

In addition, arrowheads and native american artifacts, old logging tackle and blocks, wreckage of a airplane,  numerous old tools.
" If I were two faced, do you think I would be wearing this one?"   Abe Lincoln

Ron Wenrich

The WWII aircraft was from the local Army base.  They were out flying and had engine problems.  The pilots parachuted out, and the plane became part of the mountain.

Staples found part of the space shuttle when it blew up.
Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

OneWithWood

In addition to a wide assortment of old bottles, lead-acid battery cases, beer cans, ceramic crocks horseshoes and such I have a horse drawn two-bottom plow, a horse drawn hayrake and a horse drawn corn planter rusting away in the woods.  The implements are all sitting together where at one time the edge of a field was.  Also found a milk can sitting on the top of the ridge all by itself.
One With Wood
LT40HDG25, Woodmizer DH4000 Kiln

johncinquo

Some people just north of us own a farm and have horses now.  Long before they bought it it was a hog farm, probably back in the 50s.  The train would bring the waste food from Chicago all the way up into west MI.  They would just dump train car loads  of this stuff out and let the hogs have at it.  Over the years they have found coutless amounts of stuff including silverware, glasses both drinking and eyewear, plates, little eye washing cups, and all sorts of weird stuff that made it into the food trash. New stuff gets worked to the surface all the time with the horses walking around.  You can walk out there and find something every day.
I was cleaning up an old dump site just north of my woods and found a nifty looking jar under everything else.  I gave it to my friend who is a total old jar and bottle nut, he sold it for $3300!  He gave me an old rowboat to make up for it.  He showed me how to go "treasure hunting" in rural areas.  I'll tell you the secret if you want to give it a try.  Find out where the outhouse was.  Yeah sounds gross, but any human waste is long gone.  People would drop or throw stuff in there and eventually it would get filled up and they would just cover it over.   We would get a general idea of where ot was, the probe the ground with a long metal rod.  When you feel some clinking and are sure you have the spot, just start digging, very carefully.  I have been out with him and found jars, bottle old teeth, and all kinds of strange stuff.  Not my cup of tea to collect, but fun to go hunting.  he sells and collect the stuff.  Hey finding the right old canning jar can bring over $40,000.  
My great grand father had a farm in Ohio and would find arrow heads every year.  About 10 years after he died we still had alll of them in boxes under the bed.  My mom finally put them all into 7 shadow boxes and arranged each box to have a good variety of them.  Gave one to each of the kids and grand kids so we all got a piece of our history.  Sure beats stuffing stuff under the bed!
To be one, Ask one
Masons and Shriners

Weekend_Sawyer

his is a good thread.

I was hunting in our woods in West Virginia in the 70's and came across a length of narrow guage train rail. No one beleived me and I have never been able to find it again. I am always finding sea shell fossils along this one ridge near the top of a mountain.
WS
Imagine, Me a Tree Farmer.
Jon, Appalachian American Wannabe.

Ron Wenrich

Narrow guage rail was the method of logging back after the Civil War.  There were sawmills in the east that would put many large west coast mills to shame.  I know of one that was rated at 230 MMbf.  Their edgings were bundled for kindling to NY.  That was equivalent to 30 Mbf per day.

I've come across several of those beds, but never any rail.  There is one place that has an old trolley turnaround.  Seems that there was an amusement park at the one end of town.  It is now a woodlot.  I had to read about that one in the history  books.  Lots of old amusement parks around, you just have to find them.  Good treasure spots.

Another thing we have are charcoal flats.  These are areas that were cleared and charcoal was made on the spot for iron production.  We have one area named after the guy who did all the charcoaling - Governor Dick.  He clearcut about 1,000 acres by hand - twice.  Burnt into charcoal and hauled to the local ore mine by mule.  And we think we work hard.  
Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

Don P

I mentioned Tweetsie on another thread. It's an amusement park outside of Blowing Rock, NC. It is the last of the old narrow guage ET&WNC (East TN&WesternNC...or eat taters and wear no clothes). The lines also tied into the logging lines around Grandfather Mt and the valley below. I was camping around the area and was walking the old railbed, they were abandoned after a flood in the 40's. Found bent rail around a huge tree in the floodplane and what looked like evidence of a wreck, part of a boiler and some wheels on bent axles. There was coal scattered along the railbed.

The arrowheads were from my tree planting days mostly the Carolinas and VA. We would also find pottery shards, often imprinted with corncob patterns. A friend found what we thought was an axe but an archaeologist showed where it had a little soil polish, it was a hoe. Oh, and bits of clay tavern pipes.
 We happened upon a dig in Nebraska that was a buffalo jump. It was near a spot where there were several springs in an all to dry landscape and had artifacts from many generations. They were at the level of a jumble of what must have been thousands of bones. There were a number of spearpoints they had found. These were used to finish off injured animals that didn't die in the fall.

I did find the outhouse pit here, unfortunately with the bushog. They had filled it with rocks...its now full of gravel :D.

craigc90

  Besides the usual. I have 2 handug wells and an old railroad tunnell from the 1840's the tracks are long gone but it is as good as the day it was built. a 1/4 mile long hand dug mill race for an old waterpowered mill and 2 cement dams built by the CCC in the 30's or 40's. When we started clearing to build our house I was finding pieces of an old tv antenna nearest house is 800 feet at the bottom of the hollow.I have 800 feet of old antenna wire that I have cleaned up out of the woods in the scap pile out back. The people who used to live there couln't get any TV stations and ran a wire and carried this big aluminum antenna to the top of the ridge and used it for years. My neighbor had an old waterpowered mill on his property and there was a hand built dam and they tunneled a water tunnel straight thru a hogback ridge where the creek makes a big turn when they wanted to grind corn they diverted the water straigt thru the hillside and out thru the mill. The dam is gone and so is the mill but you can still see thru the tunnel.I am going to cut this short now because I am getting longwinded but I also have found dozens of old blue glass railroad insulators and bottles.

dail_h

   When I worked in the woods around here,used to find lots of tram rail,ocasionaly a set of wheels. Once south of the Albermarle Sound,we found an old steam skidder still rigged to a tree. Oh yeah a number of unregestered chemical operatoins,looked lpke some sorta distillery ;D ;D
World Champion Wildcat Sorter,1999 2002 2004 2005
      Volume Discount At ER
Singing The Song Of Circle Again

Mark M

My daughter was picking blueberries once and found a $50 bill. 8)

woodmills1

Found three hand dug wells laid up with stone, 10-15 feet deep.  One is under the newest addition of the house.  At the old house there used to be horses, found at least 50 horseshoes and all of the pry bars that I currently use.
James Mills,Lovely wife,collect old tools,vacuuming fool,36 bdft/hr,oak paper cutter,ebonic yooper rapper nauga seller, Blue Ox? its not fast, 2 cat family, LT70,edger, 375 bd ft/hr, we like Bob,free heat,no oil 12 years,big splitter, baked stuffed lobster, still cuttin the logs dere IAM

Buzz-sawyer

Hey woodmills have you seen the movie the RING? It had a well under a house as well ...with sumptin in it :o :o
Don
    HEAR THAT BLADE SING!

Jeff

Tammy and I and Jeremy were out "Two Trackin" in the eastern U.P. a couple years ago. We had gottn off the trail on to what seemed like an old growed over skid road. It had trees growing in it. Several times we had to get out and scout our path. Anyway, 3 hours into our off-road adventure we came upon an old school but sitting in the woods. It  had been painted sorta like the old partridge family bus. It was covered in moss and and it was obvious that no one had been around it in decades. On the side of it was painted

MAJIK SKOOLBUS  We figured it was an old Hippy home or something at one time as the paint job was very 60s. We have tried to find it again but never have.
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

Jeff

Jeremy just informed me  he was little and it was 10 years ago. :-/ DanG i'm old. Some day somebody will find me in da woods.
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

Keltic

I found a friend of mine one evening. He was sitting on the ground with his thigh bone sticking out through his jeans. He was happy to be found, less so after we hauled him out with a tractor and pulp trailer. Ouch!

karl

'Bout all I found in the woods was my way home-
Know a guy that found a big ole cannon barrel- 5' or more long- had a carriage built for it and mounted on his lawn. Figgered some of them Brits forgot where they parked it when they wus defending "the King's pine trees".
"I ask for wisdom and strength, Not to be superior to my brothers, but to be able to fight my greatest enemy, myself"  - from Ojibwa Prayer.

sawman

  Back in the late 70's or so we were out doing tsi and came upon a tree that had a piece of tin through it,seemingly out in the middle of nowhere.  Dad said it was an  old homplace and many years ago a tornado had came thru and the piece of tin was from the roof of the house, and the tornado drove the tin through the tree.
 I'll try to find my way back to it and get a picture. It was still there about 10 years or so ago.
'14 LT40 Hydraulic 26 HP koehler ,massey ferguson 2200 forklift, Case IH D40
Wallenstein FX85

Phorester


Found a short length of hand forged chain and a splitting wedge against the base of a tree.  Turns out it is a chain used on civil war era cannons to keep it from rolling when fired.  You can see them on fully restored cannons.  It's the short chain on the carriage behind the breech.  You just threaded'em through the wheel spokes.

Found an old double bit axe while on a forest fire.  Put a new handle in it and use it.  

The best find though was on a hot, humid august day when I saw a beer can in a little mountain stream.  Picked it up just to carry it out and found out it was unopened! Best darn beer I've ever had.

Oregon_Sawyer

One time when I was hauling rock on an old logging road I found and old crosscut saw.  Someday it will go on the wall of our house. (My wife just told me no it won't,  we'll see :))

While in junior high my dad was logging  a ravine that had had a canning facility at the head of it around  the turn of the century.  I got to dig bottles to my heart's content.  We also dug bottles at a couple of old homesteads.  Some where I still have some of them.

Once while hunting we found a pair of binoculars.

Loren
Sawing with a WM since 98. LT 70 42hp Kubota walk behind. 518 Skidder. Ramey Log Loader. Serious part-timer. Western Red Cedar and Doug Fir.  Teamster Truck Driver 4 days a week.

chet

A couple of years ago I came across the remains of 6 charcoal Iron Furnaces. One of which was almost 100% intact.
I am a true TREE HUGGER, if I didnt I would fall out!  chet the RETIRED arborist

Frank_Pender

Loren, I think that Julia might just donate that saw for my collection in the Mill Building. ;D 8) 8) 8) 8)  I will hve to speak to here about it.  
Frank Pender

Texas Ranger

I have told about the space shuttle parts.  But earlier equipment comes to mind.  Found a quartzite anvil used by the indians in making stone points.  Found a broad ax in the side of a road cut.  Used to find turpentine cups in the old long leaf pine woods used to collect resin.  One of the more interesting was a bottle dump used by a doctor back in the old horse and buggy days.  Used to have a picture of the doc taken in the area, but the bottles I gave out to a pharmacist friend.

Worse finds were were two bodies, back while I was in the fire fighting business, one a suicide out in the woods when we went to a fire, the other a heart attack victim, older lady, at her cabin where she had tried to fight a fire.
The Ranger, home of Texas Forestry

Corley5

Hand forged log tongs in an opening I was discing, OLD bottles in the remains of an OLD manure pile next the remains of a barn where I was dozing to level up a spot for a fence tp keep the deer away from some English oak transplants, pudding stones ;D ;D, old axe heads, an old trappers shack in Beaver Basin in da U.P., and I too found a suicide victim who had ended it with a 20 gauge shot to the face.  Not a good way to start your day :( :(
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Frank_Pender

 This might be a bit to one side for actually finding in the woods, but here goes.  After comeing back from the Oregon Coast to watch the Sun rise on a Sunday morning; my date (our first) suggested we go for a walk on her farm.  While we were walking through a 60 year old stand of natural reprod Douglas Fir, I looked up intothe tree tops and turned to my "date" and said, "Let's get married."  Her instant response was, "YES!"   8) 8)  8) 8) 8) 8) Twenty four years later, that stand of trees are still standing and the trail is named, "Engagement Drive", even though the only thing that runs on the trail are the gators or the tractor from time to time

    So, you might say I found a tree farm while walking in the woods.  Who says, I can't see the forest for the trees? :D.
Frank Pender

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