Help identify photo: Is this a cistern?

gocards1177 · Apr 23, 2017

Is this a cistern? (And what to do with I might add.)

A little background. Property is in rural MO. I didn't receive any previous owners records but I have records from online searches that my land was owned by a local pastor around 1900. When we bought our property the PO told us this was an old cellar and cistern. This sounded neat at the time and I suppose it still is but now 6 years later it's still just sitting there and it's kind of a hazard for the tractor. I assume this is correct because theres a pipe that leads to the cellar. Maybe that was for collecting rain off the roof of whatever say over the cellar?

The old cellar is handy for a place to burn brush but other than that or filling it in I'm not sure what to do with it. I've discovered that the PO and his parents were fond of trash piles so I'm confident there's decades of refuse there. If I dig deep enough and poked around with a metal detector perhaps I'd find something interesting? I thought too I could save some of the stones for projects and store them on some pallets out of the way. Anyone have any other thoughts or insight?

Sysop · Apr 23, 2017

In my opinion, it may have been a cistern many years ago, but now it is just a hazard. I have a large cistern about that size on my property, but it has a large brick dome covering the top with just a man sized opening on the top that stays covered. A spring up the hill from the cistern fills it, then there is an underground pipe that runs down the hill to the house. Mine will not hold any water, I will need to climb down into the cistern and mortar it back up.

2ndhalf · Apr 23, 2017

Either that or a "dug well" a lot of really old homes have wells that were hand dug and stoned up the sides like that. I had an old home with one looked very similar to that. Looks like someone filled it in though which is good.

I use to have nightmares of one of my boys falling into that well but it was all we had for water for a few years.

oosik · Apr 23, 2017

It does look like a cistern of some type. I would sure be careful around it. My neighbor had an old bricked hand dug well on the original homestead site. He was checking it out prior to filling and found a wooden platform down about ten feet. He pulled a few of the old platform boards and found the well was actually around thirty five feet deep and bricked all the way to the bottom. The old homesteader spent a tremendous amount of time & energy on that project.

Looking4new · Apr 23, 2017

It appears to be a well to me, partially filled in.

fishheadbob · Apr 24, 2017

It could be a mostly filled in dug well; it could also be a cesspool. Either way I'd be filling it in.

gocards1177 · Apr 24, 2017

oosik said:
It does look like a cistern of some type. I would sure be careful around it. My neighbor had an old bricked hand dug well on the original homestead site. He was checking it out prior to filling and found a wooden platform down about ten feet. He pulled a few of the old platform boards and found the well was actually around thirty five feet deep and bricked all the way to the bottom. The old homesteader spent a tremendous amount of time & energy on that project.

Yikes! A hidden platform that could break through? I will not be showing my wife this thread now.