septic tank in the middle of nowhere

techman · Mar 12, 2007

73 years would have eliminated any smell. Also that age predates most concrete tanks. They used to be a stone cesspool or metal tanks.

A bit more investigation of what exactly you have seems in order.

paul

RonMar · Mar 12, 2007

Interesting, glad the whole top didn't collapse under the truck...

Got a metal detector? Start at the tank and work in a circle or square expanding outwards. If there was a house/barn/foundation, odds are you will find some metal associated with it nearby. If nails were used, it is likley that that not all the nails made it into the structure. If it were burnt down, any that were used will be in the ground.

BillyP · Mar 12, 2007

deere755 said:
Today it was so nice I decided to trim back some trees along the back side of the field and it was dry enough I just decided to drive back in my pickup. The field is a half mile back to the tree line and I would say that at the 1/4 mile line give or take a few feet I dropped the front of my pickup off in a big hole. I thought it must be a broken tile hole but I couldn't see it until I got my truck out of the hole. I called my wife and she brought out the tractor and a chain to pull me out, thats when we discovered I had fell in a old septic tank. I later talked to my mother in law about our find as she has lived on the land for 73 years. I asked her if their used to be a house there and she said not as long as she could remember. I know it had to be an old septic tank, it was a square concrete tank and the smell told the rest of the story. I can not imagine why it was placed there. It is to far away from any house to have been used by anyone. Any ideas on why a septic tank would have been placed out in the middle of a 40 acre field?

The government built a bunch of square dipping vats starting in 1917 and ending in 1940. They were all shut down in the late 60's. There was quite a few in my area but don't know about yours.

MossRoad · Mar 12, 2007

What are dipping vats?

BillyP · Mar 12, 2007

MossRoad said:
What are dipping vats?

It's a vat for dipping

Seriously now. In the early 1900's, cattle ranchers in the entire Southeast United States battled a disease called Cattle Tick Fever that could kill their cattle. The government stepped in and started building community dipping vats. A lot of these vats were built (in these parts) by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) and the WPA (Work Project Administration).

It's been years since I've seen one and I'm not sure how accurate my description is but...

The ones I've seen were built close to a creek. This way they had a water replenishing supply. It had a corral/holding pen at both ends. Here comes the guess work... The vat was maybe 4 ft wide times 6 ft deep times 25 ft long. The dip was some really nasty stuff, especially at today's DEQ and EPA standards. The main ingredient in the dip was water arsenic and DDT

Like I said before, I'm not sure in what other parts of the US had these vats.

dmccarty · Mar 12, 2007

BillyP said:
Like I said before, I'm not sure in what other parts of the US had these vats.

FLA used to have them but they just dug a hole and waited it to fill up with water. Then they put in the chemicals and forced the cattle to take a bath. I'm sure the EPA would frown on this practice today.

What is funny is that off all the time I have spent in the woods in FLA I have never had a tick. Chiggers yes. Squeeters heck yes. Ticks no. I had to put Advantage on the dog yesterday since we found a puffed up tick in the house on Saturday. In a few more weeks/months if you step out in my woods without some sort of chemical protection you will be full of ticks.

NC is the most tick infested place I have ever seen....

We need to dip the deer...

Later,
Dan

N80 · Mar 12, 2007

Cattle farmers around here still have above ground concrete cisterns about the size of a septic tank. Any chance it was once above ground and just got covered up over the years? I've seen some that appear to be sinking too, which would happen if built on low ground.

I have another phenomenon about 30 yards behind my cabin. There is a patch of trees which clearly was a house site (my 50 year old B-I-L remembers the house). In this island of trees is what appears to be a concrete cistern. But, when you look into it you realize it is a well. If you get a super powerful light, and it has been dry for a while, you can see that it is hand dug! I measured it at 30 feet! But then you notice something else; the concrete 'cistern' is supported on old narrow gauge railroad rails. And then you notice that time and water have eroded all up underneath the cistern and you are standing on a thin crust of dirt and field rocks!

It is very dangerous and very unstable. The 30 foot fall might not kill you but the cistern coming down on top of you might. I have not decided what to do about it (after 5 years). I thought about fencing it off and putting warning signs up.....but that would attract most people. I guess I could fill it in, but I don't have that much dirt and I'm abuit nervous about approaching it in the tractor.

My B-I-L is convinced there is Confederate gold at the bottom. The only thing I ever saw down there was a dead possum.

Let us know if you ever find out what your pick-up trap really was. Good luck.

swiftboot · Mar 12, 2007

The dimensions of the tank/structure would tell more about what it may have been. Normally the cattle dips were long and narrow so the animal couldnt turn around and it would be sloped down on both ends for entering and departing. In Florida i think the govt had them placed so that no one would have to drive their cattle more than 20 miles to reach one (before fence laws)
As someone stated, they contained some potent chemicals like DDT which doesnt lose its strength like may other chemicals. When Disney bought up all that cheap pasture land to build a house for the mouse they found a dipping vat on a part of the property. The first court case as i recall was in Texas when the govt was gonna sue the landowner to clean up the toxic material found near a vat. Courts rulled that the govt required them and administered the chemicals, ergo, govt was responsible for cleanup. One other possiblility would be an outdoor privy, (toilet) unlikely cause it seems time would have filled it in. Depth, width and length would reveal more about what i may have been.

chuck

deere755 · Mar 12, 2007

I went out today and looked at it again. There seems to be a tile coming in and a tile going out of it. The tank is about 8 foot deep. It could be that there was a house there a long time ago but I figure that 73 years ago was before septic systems and most likely a outhouse would have been in use. When was the 1st septic systems put in use? At any rate I am going to fill it in. It will be time to farm it in a few weeks.