Dodged a bullet - found a sinkhole

[BraveheartGN]

Since it's near a stone wall it would appear to be an old farm site at one time. Any possibility it was an old "grave" for horses?

 

[caps]

A pit from a really old outhouse location perhaps? It was not unusual for them to just throw a couple boards and some dirt over them when the outhouse was moved.

 

[tractchores]

Since it's near a stone wall it would appear to be an old farm site at one time. Any possibility it was an old "grave" for horses?

Could be, though the primary use was livestock pasture and the livestock of choice was sheep. It wasn't near any of the barn sites or anything and stopped being used as pasture land probably over 100 years ago and became orchard then ultimately forest. The lot next to it was apparently partially a saw mill site that processed a huge number of trees that fell during the hurricane of 1938, though the actual sawmill was probably 3/4 mi away. Maybe I'll find some clues when it finally dries enough to dig it out. I'm thinking it was a man made cavity via a covered hole or something rotting away as the water does not appear to be flowing or coming up even though we've had huge amounts of rain..

 

[farmgirl19]

Now we ALL want to know what it is! Be neat to "see" what you discover. Just stay safe, doing your excavation.

 

[compact]

Maybe a sunken grave? I worked in a cemetary for a couple years, we all learned to levitate during spring mowing.

 

[Richard]

Glad to hear you're ok. It's a scary moment.

I was on my backhoe once, on the hill next to the house (away from house). I was facing up the hill when all the sudden the machine, a full sized machine, suddently felt light and was teetering. I stopped... looked around, didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.

Put into gear and didn't move. Confused, I jumped off to look.

One of the rear tires was floating in mid air. I had found some form of cavern and the wheel had broken through the top crust. I watched....nothing happened so I got back on the machine, lowered the stabilizers and used the hoe to crab the back around a bit. I got the wheel on solid ground & moved the machine.

Went back to look and I'm guessing the hole was maybe three to five feet deep and maybe five/ten feet across (it's been 10 years so I don't remember)

Turned the backhoe around and used the hoe to dig up & cave the hole in.

Probably the scariest moment I've ever had on the machine, well, other than one time the wife was yelling at me wagging her index finger...saying something about I just crushed her flowers but, that's a different story.

 

[tractchores]

Scary! The rain finally stopped for a few days, so the area may be dry enough to dig out by next weekend

 

[tractchores]

Ok we got some decent weather finally over the last week and the surface water receded enough for me to dig it out at least a little. Here are some pictures, I'm still not certain what it is and there's too much water to see the bottom still.

 

[tractchores]

Ok we got some decent weather finally over the last week and the surface water receded enough for me to dig it out at least a little. Here are some pictures, I'm still not certain what it is and there's too much water to see the bottom still.

View attachment 328196
The hole is probably 3 x 4 at this point, the cavity appears to extend further out from the BH beyond it's reach from the current position, but the hole is smaller and further underground there. When digging water poured in from that direction. The edges are dirt and do not appear to be lined or anything, so this likely is buried material that rotted or a spring (or both). The entire hole seems like it might have been a pit dug out via an excavator as the sides are nearly perfectly vertical and the soil type changes on the site (soil in the pit appears to be consistent with Fill used to build the house and the sides resembles the soil in the area that has not been disturbed)

View attachment 328197
A view of the position. To the right is a tree that had been falling over last year, when I flipped the stump up I discovered that the root system is what was holding the top of the cavity up. When I fell through my foot broke through the root system. The tree is not that old, but may be 20 years (have to count some rings), which would give the minimum age if this were a dump site for woody materials.

View attachment 328198
This is my 'smoking gun' in terms of what I think this is. I found a number of pieces of wood, no big stumps or anything, but chunks of wood that appeared to be chainsaw cut and a length of a few feet maximum. Pictured is a small stump, which was found 4' below the surface, so must have been buried, I can't see how it could have gotten there on its own. There was not much woody material, but definitely some rotted pieces. Anyone know what I'd expect to find in the bottom if someone had buried some wood here?

 

[Dr_Zinj]

Massachusetts doesn't have a whole lot of karst topography, since it doesn't have a lot of limestone, being mostly granite bedrock.
I'm going to guess that this was an old wood-lined well or cistern. I remember several places around the area I grew up where farmers would sink a hole in a wet or damp spot, line it with wood so they'd have a spot out in the fields to water their stock with.