anomolies in the woods

The Monk

Jr. Member
Oct 24, 2008
42
2
West Virginia
Hi, this is my first post and forgive my ignorance but there's a few things I'm wondering about and would really like to get your opinions on the matter. A few years ago I was hiking in the woods and came upon a huge oak tree which was elaborately preserved with perhaps 20 to 30 feet of rock, wire and tar running through the cavity inside the tree. On the outside of the tree there were large rusted metal rods with wire attached. I couldn't stop thinking about why someone would go to such a great effort to preserve a tree in the middle of the woods so I returned to the area and have since found several of these trees, one of which is in the bottom of a nearly inaccessible valley surrounded by steep cliffs (I found in by accidentally losing my footing while examining a piece of metal at the base of a tree and sliding on my rear end into the valley), as well as many other strange things of interest some of which I will include pics. Recently I took a close friend with me to the site and we both believe they may be markers for a treasure. Since my initial discovery of the tree I have found metal rods sticking out of the ground, trees which are carved, trees marked with railroad spikes, old man made springs, etc. Before I jump to conclusions and spend a bunch of time searching for treasure when there might be a perfectly reasonable explanation for these anomolies, I figured I'd at least consult some people who are much more knowledgeable in these areas than myself. Having see many of the impressive pictures of peoples finds using a metal detector I have decided to purchase one and do a litte hunting on the mountain where these things have been found. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer me.
 

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Sorry if blocking out my face is considered strange. I even had reservations about posting pics of the site. But if I was looking at a possible treasure site I didn't want every treasure hunter in the world to know who I was. Am I being paranoid?
 

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the last tree in the pic has a uterus and ova ducts :dontknow:
 

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It looks like an old logging or mining camp with a bunker to me. The rod in the tree could have been placed up there to support a roof, tarp or something else and then the tree grew over it, foreign objects inside trees aren’t that unusual. If you detect the area we will have more clues to go by.

Don't show your photo, T-Net has a MugShot forum for that.
 

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I took a pic of the inside of the tunnel. It seemed to split off in two directions, but from what I can tell it only branches off to the right. I didn't go all the way in because it was very wet and there were LOTS of spiders.
 

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Well those look like storm runoff pipes from the inside of the building, but that was a square doorway in the pic of the building and usually they don't bother making the water outlets look nice and square. Hmm. This one would have me super-intrigued too! Are you close to a river? Maybe some old mines? I could see the building having something to do with either of those scenarios.
Well you'll have to excuse me as I am off to 1 of the other boards where people argue all the time so's to have a good chuckle. I'm glad we're all friendly on this part of the site. :love8:
 

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it does look like a sewer doesnt it? how far away from civilization is this?
 

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The Monk said:
Sorry if blocking out my face is considered strange. I even had reservations about posting pics of the site. But if I was looking at a possible treasure site I didn't want every treasure hunter in the world to know who I was. Am I being paranoid?

Folks are just jiving ya monk, very intriging post. Take whatever precautions you deam neccesary.
Im thinking its not a treasure sight there was way to many folks up there, but defnetly intresting.
Id be detecting it and looking in history books or asking old locals about it.
 

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hollowpointred said:
it does look like a sewer doesnt it? how far away from civilization is this?
God help me if I'm exploring sewers :tard:
My theory is that it's a spring (notice the small pipes coming out of the back wall). If it were a sewer
wouldn't the pipes be at least as big as my arm so they wouldn't get clogged?
All the other sewers in this town are large and round and they have big ceramic pipes leading into them.
Here's a pic of the inside of the other opening 500 yards down from it. Date on the camera is screwed up.
mellowcheddar said:
Are you close to a river? Maybe some old mines? I could see the building having something to do with either of those scenarios.
I'm a few miles from a river, don't know about possible mines.
 

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The Monk said:
Sorry if blocking out my face is considered strange. I even had reservations about posting pics of the site. But if I was looking at a possible treasure site I didn't want every treasure hunter in the world to know who I was. Am I being paranoid?

Monk, don't apologize for blocking out your photo. In the THing world, you can't be too safe sometimes. This site may be a "bust" , but again, maybe not. Security is a good word in today's world because there are folks who will "skunk" you if they can. Besides, It's your decision on how to handle your business. Not paranoia; common sense in today's society---sad to say.

By the way; welcome to the forum.
 

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I start out at the local courthouse. You can pull the deed for the property, then follow it back, from person to person, deed to deed, to see if there was a home or business or whatever that was recorded.

I'd also be interested in looking for the name on the tree that matches the previous owners.

B
 

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Could this also be a large system of connected cisterns for capturing rain water for crop watering? .........NGE
 

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notgittinenny said:
Could this also be a large system of connected cisterns for capturing rain water for crop watering? .........NGE

That's kind of what I'm thinking. The "floor" looks like some sort of weir system, but the "door" seems too small to be convenient for anything other than "maintenance" access.

Diggem'
 

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notgittinenny said:
Could this also be a large system of connected cisterns for capturing rain water for crop watering? .........NGE
It's a rocky mountainside where you have to follow a deertrail next to a big ravine to get to. I can't see where crops would be as there aren't any flat areas.
mrs.oroblanco said:
I start out at the local courthouse. You can pull the deed for the property, then follow it back, from person to person, deed to deed, to see if there was a home or business or whatever that was recorded.

I'd also be interested in looking for the name on the tree that matches the previous owners.

B
I'm going to the courthouse tomorrow to do just that. These are all great ideas. Thanks.
 

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HOLA amigos,

I don't have an explanation for all of this, but from experience working for a surveyor in the eastern states it is not that unusual for a property marker TREE to have been carefully preserved. Many old surveys done in eastern states have descriptions that would baffle many western surveyors, saying things like "...seven perches of land running up the center of the creek and then north to the big oak tree, then east to an old Chestnut tree..." etc. Unfortunately for modern surveyors, those old trees are too frequently gone - like for instance the Chestnut trees which were nearly completely wiped out. So my guess for the big oak that had so much work done on it to preserve it was done because it is a property boundary marker. Some of the metal rods are also possibly survey markers.

All the evidence put together I would GUESS this is an old homestead, and certainly a great place to go metal detecting! I hope you will keep us posted as to what you find! Thank you in advance,
Oroblanco
 

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Oroblanco said:
HOLA amigos,

I don't have an explanation for all of this, but from experience working for a surveyor in the eastern states it is not that unusual for a property marker TREE to have been carefully preserved. Many old surveys done in eastern states have descriptions that would baffle many western surveyors, saying things like "...seven perches of land running up the center of the creek and then north to the big oak tree, then east to an old Chestnut tree..." etc. Unfortunately for modern surveyors, those old trees are too frequently gone - like for instance the Chestnut trees which were nearly completely wiped out. So my guess for the big oak that had so much work done on it to preserve it was done because it is a property boundary marker. Some of the metal rods are also possibly survey markers.

All the evidence put together I would GUESS this is an old homestead, and certainly a great place to go metal detecting! I hope you will keep us posted as to what you find! Thank you in advance,
Oroblanco
Yeah, that's a great idea, in fact it's the most reasonable idea I've yet heard about the preserved trees. I have found property markers (stakes with pink ribbons attached to the tops) but they weren't near the preserved trees. It's possible that the land was subdivided at some point rendering the old markings obsolete. I can't find any evidence at all of a homestead though. There are some aspects of this site that I'm not yet comfortable revealing that may shed light on it. I'm still trying to figure out a way to describe it without giving away it's location. Thanks for all the replies.
 

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Maybe also was cistern system for collecting rain water for drinking water for the town that used to be there......NGE
 

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When I was a kid, single wire ropes were sometimes rigged across rivers in place of bridges. You hauled yourself across in a big bucket-like affair. Try assuming such a thing was rigged at your site. Could it make much easier assess than coming down the cliff? For people, logs or mined ore?

Chip V.
 

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