Strange things found in the forest

[MossRoad]

Pilot - if I go out where the area is unknown - I always have my Garmin, now. The one time I had trouble was decades prior to Google Earth or GPS. As I remember it was the late hunt in 1961. If I would have simply kept my wits about me and made mental notes of the various terrain, I would have not been in that situation.

But in those days I was young & indestructible ....... you know how that story goes. And it was in Alaska where a person can get lost. Around here in Ea WA a person is far more likely to get hurt(twisted ankle, etc) than ever getting lost.

But you are correct - a good map and/or a GPS unit and knowing how to use them can be a life saver.

Here, in Indiana, you are RARELY, and I mean RARELY, less than 1/2 mile from a road in any direction. They're pretty much set up on a 1 mile grid. Only around the southern end of the state or near national forests, state wetlands, etc... do you get into areas with less road spacing. If someone gets lost in Indiana, oh man, they shouldn't have been out there in the first place.

 

[budepps3760]

My parents have owned 85 acres since mid 60's and they signed it over to me a few years ago. Recently I was walking out the back side which has been impassable due to forest growth. Due to extensive drought the undergrowth has died out making walking it possible.

I found the remains of an old still. Mason jars, galvanized and copper parts to the still. Also found an old soda bottle with a fern growing out of top. Sure fine soda manufactured in Birmingham Alabama. After research the bottle distributor was there only during 1920's. This still has been in woods for almost 100 years. Enjoyable find.

 

[MossRoad]

My parents have owned 85 acres since mid 60's and they signed it over to me a few years ago. Recently I was walking out the back side which has been impassable due to forest growth. Due to extensive drought the undergrowth has died out making walking it possible.

I found the remains of an old still. Mason jars, galvanized and copper parts to the still. Also found an old soda bottle with a fern growing out of top. Sure fine soda manufactured in Birmingham Alabama. After research the bottle distributor was there only during 1920's. This still has been in woods for almost 100 years. Enjoyable find.

Neat. Got any pictures? I really like looking at old still sites.

 

[300UGUY]

My parents have owned 85 acres since mid 60's and they signed it over to me a few years ago. Recently I was walking out the back side which has been impassable due to forest growth. Due to extensive drought the undergrowth has died out making walking it possible.

I found the remains of an old still. Mason jars, galvanized and copper parts to the still. Also found an old soda bottle with a fern growing out of top. Sure fine soda manufactured in Birmingham Alabama. After research the bottle distributor was there only during 1920's. This still has been in woods for almost 100 years. Enjoyable find.

Had it been destroyed by the ATF folks?

 

[two_bit_score]

My parents have owned 85 acres since mid 60's and they signed it over to me a few years ago. Recently I was walking out the back side which has been impassable due to forest growth. Due to extensive drought the undergrowth has died out making walking it possible.

I found the remains of an old still. Mason jars, galvanized and copper parts to the still. Also found an old soda bottle with a fern growing out of top. Sure fine soda manufactured in Birmingham Alabama. After research the bottle distributor was there only during 1920's. This still has been in woods for almost 100 years. Enjoyable find.

Sure would like to see pics of some of that!



TBS

 

[FTG-05]

My parents have owned 85 acres since mid 60's and they signed it over to me a few years ago. Recently I was walking out the back side which has been impassable due to forest growth. Due to extensive drought the undergrowth has died out making walking it possible.

I found the remains of an old still. Mason jars, galvanized and copper parts to the still. Also found an old soda bottle with a fern growing out of top. Sure fine soda manufactured in Birmingham Alabama. After research the bottle distributor was there only during 1920's. This still has been in woods for almost 100 years. Enjoyable find.

I've found at least two old still sites in the Bankhead NF south of Moulton, AL while deer and/or hog hunting. They look just like you describe. They were all out in the middle of nowhere, near a source of running water or spring and a ton of busted up mason jars ans old steel tin parts.

Never did find a filled unbroken mason jar full of clear liquid.....

 

[dodge man]

I'm a land surveyor and Illinois is like Indiana, hard to get lost, there is usually a road not to far away. None the less, I''ve managed to get lost a few times while working. I'll pop out of the woods on a road and realize how lost I was. It hasn't happened in a long time though.

I've got a pretty decent phone camera but I never think to take a pic. I've also found some neat stuff in the woods but I never get a pic.

 

[crash325]

When going out into the woods put a deck of playing cards in your pocket. If you get lost sit down & start playing solitaire.
very soon someone will be looking over your shoulder telling you how too move.

 

[Creamer]

When going out into the woods put a deck of playing cards in your pocket. If you get lost sit down & start playing solitaire.
very soon someone will be looking over your shoulder telling you how too move.

So true!

 

[MF283]

Way back in the late 60's right before my teen years, i'd take my grandfather's single shot 410 for a walk in the woods, i was allowed 5 shells each time, wasn't allowed to shoot anything we couldn't eat, a lot of nothing
was shot up.
One day, i went back w/o the shotgun & ran across all these macrame or interior curtain like things hanging around in the trees, saw where a fire pit had been formed & upon closer inspection, found pieces of bone, little piles of pools of what looked like blood, all were arranged in some form or another.
Talking about the hair standing up on your neck, looked around real good & made record time back to the house, told grandma & she said wait til grandpa got home, told him & he just shrugged it off.
When i got back home, i told my dad & mom, they sat me down & told me there were "cults" or best they could explain, crazy/weird people.
My dad had plenty of friends on the Sheriffs dept. called them & said they had been having regular findings in the area because the farm backed up to a State Park.
Dad told me to never take off w/o a gun again, at 13 he let me take his 38 revolver with me, told me not to shoot nothing that didn't threaten me, there was one rattlesnake that would never pose a threat again, i missed with all 6 shot's & i'm sure it found some safer territory:laughing:
I also saw my first buck on one of my forays, they grow to pretty big standards in the Park & surround Natl. Forest area.
Then there were the remains of a still, grandpa kinda grinned when i inquired about that, was told not to mention it to anyone, after his passing, i told grandma, she said she knew that rascal was up to something, years later told my dad, he said grandpa could make some good whiskey:shocked:
The farm i live on now, which was bought from relatives within the family had a still on it at one time, i still have around 75 mason jars from that site.
I guess i could write a book on the things i've found, spent my entire life getting lost in the woods, always managed to come out somehow.
Thanks for the stories, i've truly enjoyed this thread.

Ronnie

 

[Shaneard]

Found a baby snapping turtle last week. Smallest turtle I ever seen. It is dead, I guess I'll let the bugs eat it and keep the shell intact.

 

[In Da Sticks]

Found remnants of an old log cabin and hand dug rock cistern about 8 foot deep about 50 feet from it in a low lying area where water flows. Going back next summer and clear around the cabin and metal detect.

 

[crash325]

When working on a ranch in the mountains, found a set of locked deer antlers. Going on around the mountain the male deer were butting heads. Younger ones playing at it. In the canyon where the house was built boxed up. You could get down in from above. Went down there, rumor was a bunch of outlaws camped there & hid some of their loot. Found old trunk, rusty cans. But no gold.

A fun sort of find was a huge Choke Cherry tree. It hung over the road, you could ride under it & pick bunches of cherries. Sort of a treat, if you ever get a chance try them some time.

I did find a tiny gold coin there once. Lost it, there went my fortune,

More later.

 

[Wakey]

Just read the entire thread, thanks for the interesting stories.

The one thing I can add that comes to mind after someone mentioned it.. When I was about 10, me and a couple of brothers and the boys who lived across the street were exploring some woods north of the lake near New Orleans. Their dad was retired USMC, a fighter, his father carried a couple titles back in the 40's. Pound for pound these Sicilians are the finest athletes I've ever known and they are fearless.

We got separated by about a half mile when their father started screaming. That was shocking, I know of no living being that could make that man scream like that!

So we go running over and what stands before him?

A pair of box turtles!!

I thought he was going to cry, another first. He picked them up like they were rare artifacts and we went home. They even reproduced twice, that might be as rare as finding the pair.

 

[YanmarFever]

Anyone find anything interesting in the back 40 lately?

 

[Cacinok]

I noticed on the first page of this thread an article talking about abandoned train engines in the woods. Here in the Rockies, we have the caboose. I haven't gone to check it out, but a motorcycling buddy told me the story. They were riding motorcycles way back in the mountains, through thick forest. He said that the trail opened up into a small meadow and in the middle of the meadow was an old caboose sitting on one section of train track. Evidently, there was an old railroad spur for a mine that went through that area and when they stopped using the track, it was removed. Nobody knows why the caboose was left. My friend said that you could just barely make out the track bed and they followed it for a while until the underbrush got too thick to continue.

Technically not out in the forest, but we bought an old farmhouse (which was in the forest) and when I was moving items into the attic, I smacked my head on a rafter. I sat down to let the birds swirling around my head clear out and to say a few choice words. I glared up at the rafter and on the backside hanging on some old nails was a Stevens .410 shotgun. It's a little worse for wear - the stock has a 4"x1" piece missing, but it still shoots just fine. I used it as my snake gun when I was out on the tractor. I contacted the previous owner of the house and he said that he had never been in the attic, so who knows how long it had been there.

 

[PILOON]

My son's FIL bought a spread and found an old D8 dozer way back on his land.

It'll rot there as he does not wish to disturb the land.
Silly as I'm sure there is good salvage $$'s in that dozer.

 

[scootr]

I lived adjacent to the Joshua Tree National Park. Before it was a park I got all the topo maps of the park area and saddled up packing food and water to explore the million acre park. It has a rich history of gold mining and cattle ranching. I did find a few homesteads and springs. At one spring I found a full curl Dahl ram skull with the horns trapped in a low tree branch. Still have the skull in my attic.
At another place was a good sized rocky knoll. THere were remnants of fencing and pipe from the spring in the mountain above. This knoll served as a lookout over the grasslands where I presume the cattle grazed. The knoll was covered in rock outcroppings and these rocks had philosophical messages chiseled into them about the greatness of God, the value of friendship, and the evil of politics. I believe I counted nearly 20 such messages. Somebody spent a lot of time there leaving us messages.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

I posted this in the Creepy/Cool Thread a little while ago, might as well add it here.

Just after I bought my property I was creeping through the woods with my .308 seeing if I could spook up a deer. Out of the corner of my eye I see this:

Scared the bejezzus out of me.

 

[MossRoad]

I posted this in the Creepy/Cool Thread a little while ago, might as well add it here.

Just after I bought my property I was creeping through the woods with my .308 seeing if I could spook up a deer. Out of the corner of my eye I see this:
View attachment 770015
Scared the bejezzus out of me.

Queue the scary music!