What have you found on your property?

[aquinnk]

I recently bought 13 acres in east central Alabama. The previous owner said the land had been in his family for 150 years, and that his grandfather had operated a grist mill and sawmill (fittingly) on the property. Last week as I was clearing small scrub pines, I came across this, buried in the dirt:

The top half of the grind stone from the grist mill. I'm guessing early 1900s. Needless to say I was very happy with the find.

I figured it would make for a good discussion. What have you found on your land? Caves, old trucks, landmines, whatever you've got

[Walnut Beast]

That's pretty neat 👍

[aquinnk]

I think so too. There should be a lower half somewhere, possibly underneath it. Now to figure out how to move it...

[Downstream]

Back in Illinois we found Native American items like arrowheads and axe heads.  Always a neat feeling to pick one up and realize the last person to touch it was Native American out hunting or making stuff in camp.  Nothing yet here in our new home in Tennessee primarily because we have not been able to find a new home yet. 

[Don P]

Have you found the mill seat yet? Maybe dam remnants, a dug race. Very often the mills of that era were an up and down sash saw, google Ledyard sawmill for some descriptions of those.

I found the old outhouse pit on our place, with the tractor and bushog  :D.

[btulloh]

Found many arrowheads and some stone axes. Many arrowheads, probably several thousand. Not all perfect, but several hundred at least are perfect. Three nice creeks and at least six springs. Probably a camping ground or maybe small village. Seems like they were making arrowheads here or why would there be so many?

[Edvantage]

Found this bottle "Davis all vegetable pain killer" it was sitting next to a huge old stump cut in about 1890. I looked it up and found out it was basically opium. The poor feller (litteraly) felling that giant cedar was probably one sore dude. Apparently the opioid crisis is nothing new. 

 

[Brian_Rhoad]

We have found Indian arrow heads also. My great grandfather had a steam powered circle mill on the property in the late 1800s to the early 1900s. When we were moving dirt around to set up my dad's Frick mill he found an old saw tooth. It has to be one from my great grandfathers mill. We know the history of the property and there were no other mills near here.

[Walnut Beast]

Very interesting posts here. Makes you think about life

[JJ]

All I have ever found on my property was pet cemeteries, no inclination to dig further.

        JJ

[aquinnk]

All very cool. It would sure be interesting to know the story of the opium bottle. And finding a tooth from your grandfather's mill must have been special. 

I always love finding arrowheads and tools. I've found a few cool things over the years, but never an axe! I have found a few flint flakes on this property that seem to have come from knapping, but nothing whole as of yet. 

I haven't found anything with the sawmill yet. I've asked the PO to stop by if he is ever close by, I'm sure he could show me where everything used to be. 

[mike_belben]

I did find a german shepherd 5ft under one time on a former property.  Was kinda gross. 

[samandothers]

On the back side of our property there is a steep drop with a spring near the bottom where it flattens.  This area being in the mountains there was some locals, not related.... that I know, that created some untaxed drinks at one time.  


 

Those that did not take a liken to this process left their mark on some of the items.  Least that was the story as shared with me.  

[Ljohnsaw]

U.S.40 somewhat followed I80 up through the Sierras.  40 crosses along the bottom of my property and I80 beyond that.  Halfway up my property (hill) is a flat cut traversing the hill.  Researching (looking at old maps) shows it to be the Emigrant Trail - hence the name of the gap west of me - Emigrant Gap.

Anyhow, the trail was apparently used by early vehicles.

 
On the left of the trail there is a low black pile.  That is a bent frame, firewall, oil pan and some of the arms for a soft top.  A friend that knows Dodges said it was a 194x Dodge Deluxe sedan.  It looked like it was T-boned.  Rear axle is gone and the block (scrap metal?)

A little further up the trail (around the corner to the left) I found a pile of old rusty (big) tin cans.  Probably a nice spot for a meal on the road.

To the right of the picture is a steep road, going down to old 40 and I80, that is washed out (all big gravel/rocks. Now long gone but a few years ago I found a old wooden outhouse crushed.  Lower on the hill I think I found the remnants of a house/cabin.  Need to get out there with a metal detector.

[SwampDonkey]

Just rocks. :D :D :D   @thecfarm ;)

Magnesium sulphate



Ok, well I'm not going to inventory all the horse drawn machinery sinking into the ground out behind. Blame that on dad's uncles.  :D :D :D

[breederman]

Mostly old Genesee beer cans. Our property was owned by a fish and game club before we bought it in the 80s. 

[Ricker]

Way out in the back 40 in a well wooded section I found a old spring tooth harrow that had a 7-8 " maple growing up thru the hitch.  Still works good.

[thecfarm]

Still finding rocks too.  :  Every time I try to level out an area. more show up.
This is family land, so I don't really found much. I know where there are 2 old cellar holes. One is a big one, most times a cellar hole was really a root cellar. Only about 8X8 foot, maybe. There is one here about 3 times that size, all dug by hand.

[Corley5]

Rocks here as well.  An occasional puddinstone is found.

[Tacotodd]

So far just trash and nails from the previous owner(s). And trash from the logging here from before being owned by them. (Don't worry, properly handled. Not good except for flat tires.)

[samandothers]

This is an interesting picture that shows a crosscut looking abandoned and a dead soldier beside it, Black Label can.  



 

Could make up some great stories to fill in the blanks.  I don't recall if this was taken near the still pictured earlier in this thread or not.  Could point to some theme here.

[Tom King]

There was an Indian village on the river, a few hundred yards off the end of our point.  It's underwater now, when they flooded the lake.  Raking the point last Summer, I found a stone hammer, and an arrowhead with edges still sharp enough that you could skin an animal with it.  The hammer was near where I dug up a stump, and probably came up when I pulled the stump up with the mini-excavator.

I knew an expert on this particular location.  He said the hammer was from the Archaic Period, and probably between 12, and 14 thousand years old.  The arrowhead is made from flint, which we don't have around here, and was  2 to 4 thousand years old, from the Prepottery age.  It's called a Savannah Point.

We've found lots of other arrowheads, over the years, but I don't think any of them are as old as that Savanah River Point.  We don't have flint around here, so it came here from somewhere else.




 

[florida]

Back in the dark ages of the mid-fifties, my grandfather had to retire from his dental practice due to arthritis. Being too young to actually retire he bought a 110-acre farm on the Fisher River near Skull Cap Mountain near the VA border in western North Carolina. I was probably about 10 or thereabouts when my Dad took me up to the farm to explore. There was a locally famous swimming hole there on the river where he and his friends all swam when they were teenagers. Just downstream from the swimming holes were the remains of an old dam and the stone foundation of a grist mill which had washed away in a flood in the 1930s or 40s. As we looked he spotted one of the millstones sticking out of the dirt. At the time I had no idea what a millstone was but remembered the moment.  As kids and teens, we swam there every year until my grandmother died and the farm was sold. I never saw the millstone again even though I looked.

30 years later my youngest brother and I decided to drive to NC  to visit a great aunt and the old farm. Amazingly nothing had really changed at the farm, all the buildings were there except the old chicken shed which had fallen down, and some of the ancient log cabins which had been converted to tobacco barns were in rough shape. We walked toward the swimming hole and I told him the story of the millstone and said, " It was right over here" and there it was, exactly where I remembered it from 40 years before!

As it happened I went back 4 or 5 more times in the next 10 years but the next trip the millstone was gone. I went back again in 2019 and now everything is gone, not a building left anywhere except the old mill foundation which I'm sure has been saved by its location over the bank of the river. Time has a way of erasing the past.

[Roxie]

Found her in 1985, covered in dirt and her arms were missing. The original doll manufacturer had used twine to attach the arms, it rotted and no amount of digging located them. She was filthy but I only brushed off the dirt and used a wet washcloth to avoid doing any damage to her very faded paint job. 

Carved into her back, were the words "Made in Occupied Japan."  That dated her to around 1945. 

I kept her wrapped in a doll blanket in a drawer in my bedroom. When Cowboy Bob moved in with me in 1993, I relocated her to a shelf in my closet and told him the story of how I found her. After he passed I was rearranging my closet and to my utter amazement, when I opened the blanket, I found her completely and professionally restored. 

It seems he had taken her to a doll hospital and simply put her back for me to find. To say she is priceless to me would be an understatement. 

[moodnacreek]

Just rocks. :D :D :D   @thecfarm ;)

Magnesium sulphate



Ok, well I'm not going to inventory all the horse drawn machinery sinking into the ground out behind. Blame that on dad's uncles.  :D :D :D

Almost looks like a hammer stone. When was your part of N.B. settled?