Old Cellar Holes in New England

[dave1949]

There is a cellar hole on my land from an old homestead. Just a hole about 20'X30'X8' deep lined with granite rocks for a foundation, some split, but not pretty or very useful. Certainly, I would never attempt to build anything on it.

There was also a barn in that area and a silo, all long gone, just stacked rock foundation for the barn that has had logs skidded over it, was mined for the rocks and is a jumbled mess.

My question, is there any reason to preserve the old cellar hole? It is a piece of history, but not much of one, nor one that I have any personal connection with. It surrounded by a stand of mature black locust trees, which for some reason is common for old home sites around here. It sits about 60' from the road.

Little by little I have been cleaning up that corner of the property. Lots of old junk in places, could probably fill a pickup truck bed or two with it. Whiskey bottles seem to be pretty common :laughing: and I found a 1962 Maine license plate. I have started to rehabilitate, if that is the right word, that area and haven't decided what to do, if anything, with the cellar hole.

I know I should have a pic :ashamed: Right now there is an 18" poplar log laying in it that was snapped off by the wind last year.
Dave.

 

[Carl_NH]

Dave,

Interesting question - personally I like to know the history of a place so I would research the deeds/titles back a ways to at least know background and people who lived there.

Our place is near the ocean and in the 40s it had a small garage/summer house and 10 years a ago some folks from Colorado drove in and explained their backgound asked to see the back of the garage where they slept in the summer.. its pretty much the same paneled bead board as it was then.

So there is a history and by asking on TBN you're thinking along these lines it seems so once you get some background, you can do what you like. I would probably work most of the stones into a border and wall on your place, then if you want to preserve history put a small rock foundation in commemoration of the past and a marker of sorts.

You could also lay pipe in the hole and fill in for your geothermal heating system too!

Just my two cents - and I like Industry Me - great place.

Carl

 

[dave1949]

Dave,

Interesting question - personally I like to know the history of a place so I would research the deeds/titles back a ways to at least know background and people who lived there.

Our place is near the ocean and in the 40s it had a small garage/summer house and 10 years a ago some folks from Colorado drove in and explained their backgound asked to see the back of the garage where they slept in the summer.. its pretty much the same paneled bead board as it was then.

So there is a history and by asking on TBN you're thinking along these lines it seems so once you get some background, you can do what you like. I would probably work most of the stones into a border and wall on your place, then if you want to preserve history put a small rock foundation in commemoration of the past and a marker of sorts.

You could also lay pipe in the hole and fill in for your geothermal heating system too!

Just my two cents - and I like Industry Me - great place.

Carl

I would like to know more of the history of this piece of land. Farmington, the Franklin County seat, is only 10 miles away. It would be a good Winter project to learn how to follow the deeds back in time. Like you say, that info would help in deciding what to do.

I agree it would be a good idea to mark the location in some way, or just leave the cellar hole be since it isn't really in my way for doing anything. I can clean up around it and be happy with the results. Who knows when somebody would be trying to research a family history or whatever?

All I really know, is that much of this area was once owned by a family that had a wood turning business. Descendants of that family still own some of the parcels around mine. I have no idea how or when it came to be split up.

Thank you for your ideas, Carl.
Dave.

PS: I should add the cellar hole is about 1500' from our house, so it would be a very long geothermal pipe .

 

[300UGUY]

I've found some horse shoes and old horse drawn rake on our place. From what I know, this area was sttled in the 1830's. I ran into a old guy once, 20 years ago, he was looking over my 10 acres. He told me that his dad had the 1st alphalfa field in the county there in 1936. Surprised me, as most of the property seemed to be pretty heavily wooded. But as I've found out, in this area, if you don't mow it, it grows up into trees pretty quickly.

 

[300UGUY]

I was up in Maine, years back, and one thing that surprised me was that the Maine woods ended at the Canadian border. Lots of trees in the US, lots of farms in Canada. Why can the canucks make a living farming, but the Americans can't?

 

[DaveOmak]

Dave, evening. I may have been the original homesite. Seeing old, cold country homes, they built mostly below ground for insulation. Maybe 2-3 feet of wall above ground for light.
You might want to dig around in the soil sometime to see what you could find. Maybe use a metal detector in the area and inside the walled area. Could turn up some interesting artifacts.

 

[JB4310]

I would leave it, it is a piece of history. Might want to dig around in there see if you can find anything.

If you're cleaning up that part of the property you could clean around that old foundation and do a little landscaping to accentuate it, make it look like the part of history it is.

My brother lives in Vermont and there is an old town road that went through his property, There are several of those old stone foundations, none on his land, these are smaller and in very poor condition, some so overgrown you can barely find them.

JB

 

[dave1949]

I've found some horse shoes and old horse drawn rake on our place. From what I know, this area was sttled in the 1830's. I ran into a old guy once, 20 years ago, he was looking over my 10 acres. He told me that his dad had the 1st alphalfa field in the county there in 1936. Surprised me, as most of the property seemed to be pretty heavily wooded. But as I've found out, in this area, if you don't mow it, it grows up into trees pretty quickly.

Yep. In fact, one of my neighbors told me as a youngster, he cut hay about where our house sits. He said it was all cleared down to a creek that runs not far from our lot corner. He just died this past winter, I think he was 72 years old. So, in 50 years +-, it has all gone back to trees and been logged twice judging by the stumps. I know the last cutting was in 1999-2000, but there are some older stumps here and there in areas that probably weren't fields.

Since Maine is blessed with rocks, it is fairly easy to pick out areas that were cleared for fields or pasture from those that weren't. The rock walls surrounding the former fields are good clues, and lots of rocks on the surface means no one ever completely cleared those areas for field use. A lot of the uncleared areas look to be not worth clearing, either because of wetness or bedrock (ledge) at the surface.

I use the bush hog to keep selected areas fairly clear with just larger trees growing. The work comes in getting it to the point where a bush hog can be used -- and remembering where all the rocks are that are poking up and too big for my tractor to dig out and move My bush hog has a tough life. Actually, I can't believe it is still in one piece. It's a good advertisement for Woods brand hogs.
Dave.

 

[hr3]

What ever you do don't push the granite into the hole and burry it,, Even though it might not look great people will pay good money for it,,

 

[keegs]

Carl's post reminded me of a trip we took back to the old sod (Ireland) to find my roots. All that was left of the last living relative (my grandfather's brother and his wife) were stories and a large pile of stones where their house once stood.

I imagine it souldn't be too difficult to trace back the details of your property. Sounds like it could be fun and it would color in (inform you of) your surroundings. For me anyway, that's always a plus.

We don't have any on our property but there's a few black locust trees down by the lake here in Jersey and their abundunt bloomings put out a fantastic aroma that you can smell from a hundred feet or more. Maybe that's why they're so popular?

There is the potential for someone to wander into the hole and get hurt though. It's a tough one Dave.

Up by us in Maine I've seen folks dig a hole and bury construction debree rather than have it carted away to a landfill. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

 

[forgeblast]

I would see if anyone you know has a metal detector, can you make this into a cold cellar, or a smoke house?

 

[jinman]

I would say that if you want to preserve it, dig it out and do the job right. Otherwise, you might find a couple of fixed spots to measure a triangulation for future location, and just fill it in.

As a side note. . .
Yesterday, I took my granddaughter to show her the place where I grew up. Our old home spot is now covered with multiple apartment/condo complexes. There is, however, one spot that has nothing built on it and has a rock retainer wall around it with a drainage culvert. The grass around this area is lush and green. It's the location of an old spring. As a kid, we had this spring feeding into a couple of ponds, but now it drains across a greenbelt in the apartment complex. For as long as we have been in drought, this spring is still running and the water flowing down the drainage ditch. Never in the dryest of drought years have I ever seen this spring go dry. It's just an amazing spot.

 

[dave1949]

Some pics of my cellar hole:


1st pic: (on left) you can see it is quite a jungle around the hole.

2nd pic: there are about 8 of these cut granite stones, I think they were used for perimeter cap stones on top of the wall, they are nicer than I remembered, I will definitely save those in some way or other. About half have fallen in the hole.

3rd pic: the polar tree that fell in the hole.

All in all, it's a mess

Dave.

 

[dave1949]

More pics:

1st pic (on left): from the road, the cellar hole is left-center in the pic.

2nd pic: a fine old locust tree, I think it is the biggest one.

3rd pic: our house is 1/4 mile down this dirt lane. Really too far to be useful for a smoke house or cold storage. It is snowed shut in winter and I don't run the tractor on it until sometime in June usually, to avoid cutting ruts. Putting stone on it would cost more than it is worth. This lane was used by the loggers to get out to the road back in 2000. It is at the top of a rise, and the road curves away in both directions. The trees and curves make it impossible to see very far. We have a much shorter drive with safer sight-lines that we installed when we started building in 2005.

Dave.

 

[keegs]

Looks like allot more diciduous down by you Dave.

 

[Steve HEF]

I agree with those that mentioned using a metal detector, it might turn up some interesting artifacts.

When I was building my home, I discovered a stone foundation cut into a hillside that had obviously been abandoned a long time. I asked some old timers about it, but no one could remember a barn being there. While doing some exploration, I discovered the remnants of and old clay brick foundation, a small one room building with a fireplace at one end. Several years later I ran into a historian who had done research on the area. He remembered that my road had been a stagecoach route way back when and that there was a stop in my area where they would change horses. It was his belief that I had found the horses' barn along with the building that passengers kept warm in while waiting for the stage. I found that very interesting!

 

[dave1949]

Keegs,

I have a few small stands of spruce and some scattered white pine, but it is primarily ash, maple, beech, birch & poplar. The old cellar area is the only place I have locust.

It's hard now to get a good picture of the cellar hole. If I step back 10" it is hidden by the leaves. It is pretty lush there, I suspect because locust is a soil nitrogen fixer.

Steve HEF,

I have a metal detector, but not a very good one. My son gave it to me after using it to find his future wife's engagement ring which she lost while playing softball. :laughing: I tested it by seeing if it could locate the rebar handles on my septic tank lids, since I know where and how deep (~1 ft) those are; it failed.

There are lots of metal bits and scraps from tin cans, old barn hardware, one horse shoe so far, one bit from a brace and bit, one old sickle bar, a logging choker cable, a truck tire, asphalt shingles, three spiral fluted Pepsi bottles, you name it. I even found some woven vinyl grain bags that had been used to grow weed, they are half rotted but still full of potting soil. Of course, those are of a more recent vintage.

I have been pulling the backhoe bucket teeth lightly over the surface, mostly to find the broken glass before I drive on it. Fortunately, the junky areas seem to be together and not too large.

A detector set to locate ferrous material would probably go crazy. I want to find the old silver dollar that must be there somewhere
Dave.

 

[rekees4300]

My question, is there any reason to preserve the old cellar hole? It is a piece of history, but not much of one, nor one that I have any personal connection with.

I also have a cellar hole on my property. No reason to preserve it. Plan to fill it in. Concerned that someone might fall in it and sue. I would be liable even if that person was a trespasser.

 

[forgeblast]

Hehe funny metal detector story. Went out looking for my brand new kershaw that fell out of my pocket when I was spraying weeds.
I kept getting hits when using the detector but could not find a thing.
Long story short do not wear steel toed boots when using the metal detector.
Ps found the knife.

 

[dave1949]

Hehe funny metal detector story. Went out looking for my brand new kershaw that fell out of my pocket when I was spraying weeds.
I kept getting hits when using the detector but could not find a thing.
Long story short do not wear steel toed boots when using the metal detector.
Ps found the knife.

Steel toes - that would have a person scratching their head for a while. But, who could stop looking for new, or old, knife? It just wouldn't be right. Glad you found it.

I don't know much of anything about metal detectors. I looked at them online once, read reviews, etc. and it looks like a decent one costs $600-$800 ? I asked my son how much he paid for his, it was about $130. I think he was just interested in getting it from a shelf in his garage to a shelf in mine :laughing: It did find the ring in ball field grass. They knew about where it had to be because she felt it slip off when she took her ball glove off, but just couldn't spot it.
Dave.