Strange things found in the forest

[Shaneard]

Found a baby snapping turtle last week. Smallest turtle I ever seen. It is dead, I guess I'll let the bugs eat it and keep the shell intact.

 

[In Da Sticks]

Found remnants of an old log cabin and hand dug rock cistern about 8 foot deep about 50 feet from it in a low lying area where water flows. Going back next summer and clear around the cabin and metal detect.

 

[crash325]

When working on a ranch in the mountains, found a set of locked deer antlers. Going on around the mountain the male deer were butting heads. Younger ones playing at it. In the canyon where the house was built boxed up. You could get down in from above. Went down there, rumor was a bunch of outlaws camped there & hid some of their loot. Found old trunk, rusty cans. But no gold.

A fun sort of find was a huge Choke Cherry tree. It hung over the road, you could ride under it & pick bunches of cherries. Sort of a treat, if you ever get a chance try them some time.

I did find a tiny gold coin there once. Lost it, there went my fortune,

More later.

 

[Wakey]

Just read the entire thread, thanks for the interesting stories.

The one thing I can add that comes to mind after someone mentioned it.. When I was about 10, me and a couple of brothers and the boys who lived across the street were exploring some woods north of the lake near New Orleans. Their dad was retired USMC, a fighter, his father carried a couple titles back in the 40's. Pound for pound these Sicilians are the finest athletes I've ever known and they are fearless.

We got separated by about a half mile when their father started screaming. That was shocking, I know of no living being that could make that man scream like that!

So we go running over and what stands before him?

A pair of box turtles!!

I thought he was going to cry, another first. He picked them up like they were rare artifacts and we went home. They even reproduced twice, that might be as rare as finding the pair.

 

[YanmarFever]

Anyone find anything interesting in the back 40 lately?

 

[Cacinok]

I noticed on the first page of this thread an article talking about abandoned train engines in the woods. Here in the Rockies, we have the caboose. I haven't gone to check it out, but a motorcycling buddy told me the story. They were riding motorcycles way back in the mountains, through thick forest. He said that the trail opened up into a small meadow and in the middle of the meadow was an old caboose sitting on one section of train track. Evidently, there was an old railroad spur for a mine that went through that area and when they stopped using the track, it was removed. Nobody knows why the caboose was left. My friend said that you could just barely make out the track bed and they followed it for a while until the underbrush got too thick to continue.

Technically not out in the forest, but we bought an old farmhouse (which was in the forest) and when I was moving items into the attic, I smacked my head on a rafter. I sat down to let the birds swirling around my head clear out and to say a few choice words. I glared up at the rafter and on the backside hanging on some old nails was a Stevens .410 shotgun. It's a little worse for wear - the stock has a 4"x1" piece missing, but it still shoots just fine. I used it as my snake gun when I was out on the tractor. I contacted the previous owner of the house and he said that he had never been in the attic, so who knows how long it had been there.

 

[PILOON]

My son's FIL bought a spread and found an old D8 dozer way back on his land.

It'll rot there as he does not wish to disturb the land.
Silly as I'm sure there is good salvage $$'s in that dozer.

 

[scootr]

I lived adjacent to the Joshua Tree National Park. Before it was a park I got all the topo maps of the park area and saddled up packing food and water to explore the million acre park. It has a rich history of gold mining and cattle ranching. I did find a few homesteads and springs. At one spring I found a full curl Dahl ram skull with the horns trapped in a low tree branch. Still have the skull in my attic.
At another place was a good sized rocky knoll. THere were remnants of fencing and pipe from the spring in the mountain above. This knoll served as a lookout over the grasslands where I presume the cattle grazed. The knoll was covered in rock outcroppings and these rocks had philosophical messages chiseled into them about the greatness of God, the value of friendship, and the evil of politics. I believe I counted nearly 20 such messages. Somebody spent a lot of time there leaving us messages.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

I posted this in the Creepy/Cool Thread a little while ago, might as well add it here.

Just after I bought my property I was creeping through the woods with my .308 seeing if I could spook up a deer. Out of the corner of my eye I see this:

Scared the bejezzus out of me.

 

[MossRoad]

I posted this in the Creepy/Cool Thread a little while ago, might as well add it here.

Just after I bought my property I was creeping through the woods with my .308 seeing if I could spook up a deer. Out of the corner of my eye I see this:
View attachment 770015
Scared the bejezzus out of me.

Queue the scary music!