Strange things found in the forest

[oosik]

Mace

You must have worked at the Clinton Creek asbestos mine? Those asbestos trucks were high-balling it down the 'ol dirt road from the mine - going like they were being chased by the devil himself. Our group of five pickups used CB radios to communicate - "here comes another truck". We'd just pull over and let them whiz on by. 1968 was our final trip to Dawson and those wild drivers and their asbestos trucks were still making their runs.

 

[snowbelt geauga]

Found some old logging stuff through the years hunting in north central Pennsylvania. My brother found a school bus on top of one of the mountains.

 

[Ed of all trades]

My family and I were exploring around an old mill that used to be run on the Rivanna River in central Va and dad found a well. He was walking along and the "ground" just dropped out from under him. They had used old boards to cover the well and honeysuckle had grown over it and of course the boards had rotted. He was quick thinking enough to throw himself forward and we could help him get the rest of the way out of the well as from the waist up he was on the ground with his legs hanging over a 20' hand dug well.

On the far I grew up on was a small hole that was about 3' deep and about 6' x 12'. It was on top of a hill way back in the woods. I asked my dad and he said his grandpa did not know anything about it except that it was very old. My great grandpa fought in the war defending Richmond. I asked my grandpa on my mamas side and he said his daddy said the same thing. That hole always git me to thinking, and wondering, who, when, ect. Ed

 

[DFB]

I have stumbled across a lot of things in woods, often find old motor vehicle parts and you have wonder sometimes who and how they got out there. There was one fellow found an old vehicle while hunting behind the orchard where I work that he thought was worth getting. So he came looking for permission to cut an acess road and pull it out. We never even knew it was back there!

There was school bus made into a hunting camp I discovered one time. Definitely was there a while, and no way was it coming out either... not at least not without cutting a few trees.


New England woods in this area abound in old homesteads way up high on the surrounding mountains. Always stone walls, cellar holes and old wells hidden in the overgrowth certainly have to be careful poking around them. People lived at higher elevations years ago avoiding the damp river bottom land of the steep hillside valleys. My shed has a cool antique door pull and latch assembly I scavenged from an old burned out farmstead near where I used to hunt.


A few things stand out in my memory

A local old guy with beagle everyone knew went missing once. Big search. My ex fil knew all his hunting trails he found him expired dog sitting there with him.

And when we were kids a town street dead ended at the wood line but there was a overgrown road that continued on and at the very end of that was 3 vacant dilapidated houses. We kids always called them haunted houses and would go up after school to investigate them, of course by that time things would start to get dark we would scare the daylights out of ourselves letting our imaginations go wild and to top it off there was a old family cemetery we had to pass both on the way in and on the way back out too! :laughing:

 

[Agvg]

My grandad found this

 

[Citydude]

My grandad found this <img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/files/rural-living/449556-strange-things-found-forest-forumrunner_20151206_183658-png"/>

Amazing find!

 

[Mace Canute]

Mace

You must have worked at the Clinton Creek asbestos mine? Those asbestos trucks were high-balling it down the 'ol dirt road from the mine - going like they were being chased by the devil himself. Our group of five pickups used CB radios to communicate - "here comes another truck". We'd just pull over and let them whiz on by. 1968 was our final trip to Dawson and those wild drivers and their asbestos trucks were still making their runs.

Yeppers...Clinton Creek it was. I worked in the mill as a pressure packer operator for a bit and also as a floorwalker. Good money at the time.

One of those wild drivers almost got himself and a couple of other drivers on the wrong side of a mother bear one fine summer day. He saw a young cub at the trailer camp where the truckers used to stay, grabbed it and tried to pull it inside one of the trailers. Of course as soon as he grabbed it, it started to make as much noise as it could and the momma bear heard and came running. Fortunately the driver let go of the cub before he got it inside. Everyone figured if he had got the cub inside and shut the door the old momma bear would have gone through it in a heartbeat and likely anyone inside would have either been killed or seriously hurt. He was fired that same day

I remember another time one of the long time workers decided he just had to go into Dawson one winter day. Everybody thought he was nucking futs because of the stormy weather but off he went in his Vega. He was making good time apparently because he drove into the back end of one of a semi trailer hauling out a load of asbestos and got wedged under the not-as-flimsy-as-they-look rear bumpers on the trailer. He got dragged about 20 miles apparently until the driver stopped in Dawson.

 

[stuckmotor]

It sounds to me like the hole might have been the remains of a half bermed root cellar.

 

[Ed of all trades]

It sounds to me like the hole might have been the remains of a half bermed root cellar.

I figured the same thing. Likely under the floor of the cabin that they got to trough a trap door. Could be anything but that is my guess. I like to think about who it was and what life was like for them. Makes me think my heated and air conditioned house be pretty good after all. Ed

 

[Paddy]

Once a a young boy, my friend and I were walking a rail road through farm fields and woods. We came upon what must have been a train derailment near a small bridge. The "goods" were still there but the cardboard cartons long rotted off. It was a shipment of canned tomatoes and Ketchup. The cans were rusty and the Ketchup bottles had no labels. We spent the next hour or so throwing Ketchup and cans of tomatoes against that bridge abutment. Too much fun for a 10 year old!