Ran across something odd today!

[CCC4]

Ok so my imagination is running wild from  discovery I made today while cutting. I have a video I am going to upload to show what I am talking about but it is going to take quite a bit of upload time...in the video I cut a thumper red oak, botched my back cut...misread my lean...had to get the skidder to help give me a push and it still didn't go where I wanted! ! The tree was sound as heck and pulled no fiber so anyway...on to my discovery.

I am cutting on a mountain side, yesterday I cut this pine and the skidder OP brought to my attention this mound. We looked at it for a bit and went on. Well today I was further up the mountain and there are mounds EVERYWHERE! There are 10 or so just where I shot the video. The mounds of dirt have been dug and piled leaving the ditch like area open. They are 10 ft long and about 6 ft wide and the mounds are 3 ft. high. They are all running North and South and they are staggered up this hillside. It would be easy to assume some sort of equipment dug them....but not so fast!!! On two of the mounds...the actual piled dirt...I cut a red oak off each mound that was 3 1/2ft across the stump! Those trees had to be 125 years old I am guessing! Hmmmm....that rules out equipment for sure! The two big red oak were, one dead and one lightening stuck and dying so...I cut them. He they been alive and healthy I might have left them till told to do otherwise.

Imaginations can run wild with stuff like this. The skidder OP had a good idea that they were possibly fox holes from a Civil War skermish. They are staggered so this could be a possibility. The big oaks growing on the piled dirt mounds would put the mounds pretty darn old. I have zero idea what they are. I am uploading the video so that maybe someone has seen something like these and might have a therory, I ruled out graves so didn't feel bad about cutting the trees...these mounds are all up this hillside though! I am so intrigued byt them I am about to explode...hence this is why I am posting about them. I wouldn't think they were so cool if the big red oaks hadn't been growing on top of them. These things are old...how old? Who knows!

Video coming soon! !

[coxy]

    

[goose63]

Hurry up I got to see this

[logman81]

Sounds very interesting, get a metal detector you might fined artifacts!

[thecfarm]

They are 10 ft long and about 6 ft wide and the mounds are 3 ft. high.

About how deep? Or are they just about all filled in now? Is the dirt piled on the same side of each hole?

[CCC4]

Yes, the dirt is piled on the same side of every hole. They run very very consistent.

I have to come up with a metal detector! I just can't figure out what they are. I like the fox hole theory though. It's gonna take all evening for the upload, the video is sort of long due to my problems with the big oak...but it sure is an interesting find!

[JakeG]

You come across interesting things on a regular basis and this sounds pretty darn interesting.

[thecfarm]

Landowners has no idea?? Neighbors?? Historical Society? Has to be an Old Guy around somewheres.

[Ed_K]

Could they have been uprooted tree from a huricane from long ago?I have humps in the maple orchard from the 1938 huricane.There's new growth on and in the holes that are 20"+ .

[ljohnsaw]

Can't wait to see it.
 I wonder what they could be. . .

[Holmes]

 I have those humps in the woods here also. I thought they were from some very old blown over trees.

[thecfarm]

I have humps too.But no holes besides tham. The humps are piles of rocks.

[beenthere]

Count the growth rings on the stump that sits on a mound and go with "older than that" for age.

Not sure of your location where you are cutting, but there was a battle of Salem in 1862.
http://www.civilwarbuff.org/Places/Fulton/WarMemorial.htm

Also
http://www.ozarkscivilwar.org/regions/fulton

[Jeff]

sounds like pit and  mound topography.

[treeslayer2003]

  :)wiating

[Magicman]

I have mounds from the rootballs from wind blown over trees.  The tree and roots rot away and leave the mound and it's nearby hole.  It's very common on my land.

A large windstorm would leave many and they would all be oriented the same way.

[Cedar Savage]

Are the hills always, uphill from the holes ?  Sounds like they're log loading ramps, from ole time logging with horse & sleighs...They'd pull the sleigh in the hole & use the hill as a ramp to roll the logs on. I've seen them on hill sides all over Michigan, especially if on sandy ground.

[Jeff]

Are the hills always, uphill from the holes ?  Sounds like they're log loading ramps, from ole time logging with horse & sleighs...They'd pull the sleigh in the hole & use the hill as a ramp to roll the logs on. I've seen them on hill sides all over Michigan, especially if on sandy ground.

The especially in sandy ground makes me think that is pit and mound as well, a natural phenomenon. they didn't dig many holes in the winter into snow covered ground and most likely frozen ground. I've been an avid reader and collector of Michigan logging history, and that is the first I;ve heard of that practice. why would they, when you can pile snow if you needed a ramp.

http://www.forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,20.0.html

[Cedar Savage]

I don't know where I heard it, but it was from an ole timer. I imagine in the summer, they would cut & pile logs next to the hole, & wait for winter to skid. I think it was a practice they just used on hill sides.

[pineywoods]

Remains of big root balls where high straight line winds took out a bunch of large trees. Pretty common around here..Usually large hardwoods. SYP will break off rather than uproot, due to large taproots.