anomolies in the woods

[The Monk]

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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[The Monk]

I got a topographical map from 1902 of the area and there aren't any homesteads or mines, etc. I spent an hour with the city engineer and he didn't have any records of waterworks or mining on the mountain either. He did add that very few records of mining were kept by the county prior to 1920 due to the fact that there were very few laws concerning mining before that time so he couldn't rule out it being a part of mine drainage. He showed me a topographical map of the area from the 20s and it also showed nothing but woods. I got the GPS coordinates for every known mine in the county from the WVGS and after typing all the coordinates (about 50 or so) into Google Earth I came up with nothing. Somebody put a lot of work into those weird drains, but it wasn't the city/county and it doesn't appear to be a mining company. None of the deed books mention the drains either. I did bring up the preserved trees to the engineer as well and he said that didn't make any sense. Back to square one...

 

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[bradgny]

No records in town .... Those tunnels dont look to old .Looks like they are built in some sort of bunker fashion.Could be you stumbled on some sort of government installation .they would build those things out in the middle of nowhere.Irf that were the case there would be no record of it being there .Just a thought

 

[The Monk]

No records in town .... Those tunnels dont look to old .Looks like they are built in some sort of bunker fashion.Could be you stumbled on some sort of government installation .they would build those things out in the middle of nowhere.Irf that were the case there would be no record of it being there .Just a thought

That's an interesting theory that I never considered. The only problem with it is that I followed the deed to the land all the way back to the 1870s and the Government never owned it.

 

[bradgny]

If it was something the government wanted to keep secret ,such as mining something in that gully -cave there would be no record of them owning the land .during the cold war there were places like that everywhere .if you could find out from a geological standpoint as to what materials are in the ground around the area such as materials for making nuclear or biological things you might come up with some sort of theory yourself .maybe im way off here but ..
If thgey were mining something seems to me they would need some sort of water supply to do so and hiding water catch sysyems loke that could be an explanation

 

[Old Dog]

Look into some of the tram or rope tow systems used in and around the mid to late 19th century, as well as early 20th century.
what you have found may well be nothing more than a method to traverse that hill coming up out of the ravine.

your tunnels look more and more like a septic system with the over flow pipes open and still working.
this type of system was used before the civil war, and still used today in some remote places where sewer isn't available.

there was obviously some major work done here.
there should be some record of the ownership somewhere.
rarely will someone put in this kind of an effort on a property that isn't his.
It could be a State owned facility or as was previously stated a government outfit of somekind.
if so could be a lot bigger and farther down than you see.

The freedom of information act could help with records.

Thom

 

[The Monk]

Look into some of the tram or rope tow systems used in and around the mid to late 19th century, as well as early 20th century.
what you have found may well be nothing more than a method to traverse that hill coming up out of the ravine.

your tunnels look more and more like a septic system with the over flow pipes open and still working.
this type of system was used before the civil war, and still used today in some remote places where sewer isn't available.

there was obviously some major work done here.
there should be some record of the ownership somewhere.
rarely will someone put in this kind of an effort on a property that isn't his.
It could be a State owned facility or as was previously stated a government outfit of somekind.
if so could be a lot bigger and farther down than you see.

The freedom of information act could help with records.

Thom

The land is owned and has been owned by the Catholic Diocese since 1893. Prior to that it was owned by a wealthy family who subdivided a huge chunk of the area. The problem with it being a septic system is that there aren't any dwellings above or near the site that would require them. There is no record of any dwellings or homesteads on that mountain. The only dwellings that are anywhere near the site are houses that are on the plain at the base of the mountain. So that begs the question: Why were they using a tow system to gain access from the valley to the steep hillside? If it is indeed a tow system.

 

[Kevin Bozard]

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.

Put on your rubber boots, grab some spider killer and a good flashlight and do some exploring. Take a buddy with you just in case. The answer to your questions may be just around that corner, or it may leave you with even more questions. Explore!

 

[NGE]

When ya find out yer answers, then ye can change yer scree name to, " Sewer Spelunker "

 

[bnsfhobo]

That looks like a great exploration. However being the brave soul that I am, I would wait for a long hard freeze to kill most of the critters.......then there are always Bears.......on second thought I would take a couple of friends and have them lead the way.

Have fun it looks interesting.

Hugh

 

[tulecanyon]

except for those pieces of tile, i thought it was a mill site or charcoal kiln.

 

[kenb]

The one tree looks like a Thong tree. http://www.funlake.com/do_see/outdoors/thongs.php
good luck with that spot.

kenb

 

[kenb]

Here's another link.
http://thelibrary.springfield.missouri.org/lochist/periodicals/bittersweet/wi78b.htm

kenb

 

[NGE]

AWESOME info, now that explains the trees, but what about the manmade concrete cisterns? Maybe the Gov't. figured they'd try their hands at making ' Thong ' trees, in case of secret emergencies?.....NGE

 

[The Monk]

Why would a thong tree be marked with metal?

 

[joecoin]

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.

Put on your rubber boots, grab some spider killer and a good flashlight and do some exploring. Take a buddy with you just in case. The answer to your questions may be just around that corner, or it may leave you with even more questions. Explore!

Yep, you gotta suck it up and get in there to see what you can see. What a great spot.

 

[nova treasure]

I noticed the intials R.S. in a couple of the tree carvings,these might be something to check for as work being done in the few years that were carved.
I am very interested in the trees and the cave.I would like to add alittle more excitement and say that the Cave has some Treasure story behind it,where Indians discovered a silver mine or something just as great in there from the main entrance and they marked it's rear entrance or exit location with thong trees.
The Person with the intials R.S. may have been a treasure hunter or researcher in the early 1900's and discovered the main part had been closed off and found the thong trees marking the rear entrance which he than engineered a towing rig to haul materials across to the entrance.The holding tanks may be of some filtering system,looking at the water line on the walls it never got very deep in there.The intials were made in August,so that give him long summer days to work and the Rattle Snakes would be out of the cave until later on in the fall.
This really probably has nothing to do with it,but I just had to add my imagination to something that is already so interesting.
Good Luck and i hope your able to figure it out.
Novatreasure

 

[corklabus]

I tried shrinking the tree carving pics on my screen to see if I could make more sense of the carvings. If you know how to shrink the pics even more, you might be able to find some more clarity in the carvings, which might prompt you to some new theories. Definitely an interesting post.

 

[The Monk]

I noticed the intials R.S. in a couple of the tree carvings,these might be something to check for as work being done in the few years that were carved.
I am very interested in the trees and the cave.I would like to add alittle more excitement and say that the Cave has some Treasure story behind it,where Indians discovered a silver mine or something just as great in there from the main entrance and they marked it's rear entrance or exit location with thong trees.
The Person with the intials R.S. may have been a treasure hunter or researcher in the early 1900's and discovered the main part had been closed off and found the thong trees marking the rear entrance which he than engineered a towing rig to haul materials across to the entrance.The holding tanks may be of some filtering system,looking at the water line on the walls it never got very deep in there.The intials were made in August,so that give him long summer days to work and the Rattle Snakes would be out of the cave until later on in the fall.
This really probably has nothing to do with it,but I just had to add my imagination to something that is already so interesting.
Good Luck and i hope your able to figure it out.
Novatreasure

At this point my imagination is running wild as well. This tree is very close to the 'thong' tree. There is also what looks like a ceramic resistor for an old electric fence on a fallen log very close to the thong tree. Is it possible that the metal rod in the thong tree is some kind of lightning rod?

 

[joecoin]

Where I live (an area dating back to 1850), there are several very old maples. Some of them had ceramic insulators on them. I was told that they supported wires used for radio antennas. Back in the early days of radio, stations were few and far away, so they would string up what is called arrays for antennas to catch the long distance weak signals. These insulators were about the same size as the one you show. Get that thing off that tree and look for the manufacturers info.

 

[The Monk]

It says on it 'PPING Alligator'.