🔎 UNIDENTIFIED Could this be a well? If not, what else?

[robertk]

Several weeks ago, In what I believe is the back yard of a late 1800's homestead, I found a well bucket -- one of the long skinny buckets that would be lowered into a drilled well. Then yesterday, about ten or fifteen feet from where I found that bucket, I think I found the well. Does anyone know what an old drilled well would look like? This appears to be a pipe down into the ground, though I can't say for sure how deep it does. I first thought it had a cap on it, but after digging and probing the top a bit, I think it's just that the top of the pipe itself has been deformed. It's hard to tell. But the "hole" you see in the top is surrounded by metal, so it's not just dirt that you see there. I did dig out the dirt inside the hole at the top just a few inches, but have not attempted to probe beyond that. So I can't say if it is entirely full of dirt or what. The top of the object was about a foot underground when I started, and looks to have been backfilled around it with rocks and dirt (just like other filled holes on the property).

This is all I can see so far. The exposed part is about a foot tall, and oblong 7" by 4" on top. It does appear to be more round the further I dig, so I'm guessing it's actually a 6" round pipe once you get past the top part.

What do you think? Is this a well? Just some other random piece of iron pipe? Or something else entirely?

 

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[Robot]

Hi robertk
I believe you have found a Drilled Pipe Water Well.
The concrete top held the insert pipe in the middle of it's location and helped to prevent collapsing.
Does the skinny bucket you located pass down the pipe opening?

 

[pepperj]

Seen lots of wells.
But never seen a casing that thick though.
Maybe dig it out a bit more.

 

[robertk]

The concrete top held the insert pipe in the middle of it's location and helped to prevent collapsing.

There is no concrete top. The only thing at the top is metal, and I think it's just a deformation of the pipe itself (rather than a cap), but am not sure. But it's definitely not concrete.

Does the skinny bucket you located pass down the pipe opening?

Unfortunately the bucket has been flattened, and to some extent so has the pipe. However, if both were restore to round, yes, I believe the bucket would fit nicely inside the pipe.

 

[robertk]

Maybe dig it out a bit more.

I can do that tomorrow (already running out of daylight for today, and I have to enlarge the hole a bit first to get much deeper).

 

[pepperj]

I can do that tomorrow (already running out of daylight for today, and I have to enlarge the hole a bit first to get much deeper).

If you get 20ft down I'll vote for a well casing.🤣

 

[robertk]

If you get 20ft down I'll vote for a well casing.🤣

I'm not nearly that ambitious.

 

[pepperj]

I'm not nearly that ambitious.

You and me both.

 

[Tony in SC]

I've seen some of the early drilling devices, but I've never seen an old drilled well around here.

 

[Tony in SC]

Could have been a natural spring? We have one in a park nearby.

 

[robertk]

Could have been a natural spring? We have one in a park nearby.

I suppose that's possible but it seems unlikely. There were natural springs here at the time, but I doubt any were near where I found this pipe. There are stream beds around, but this is not in or near any of them, and it's actually on a fairly high spot in the yard.

But never seen a casing that thick though.
Maybe dig it out a bit more.

I went and dug it out a bit more. The part at the top that I thought was a metal cap was actually just really hard packed dirt. So, I dug that out a bit. I also dug down a bit further, enough to see that the pipe does return to being round further down, so the oval-shaped top is probably just damage. With the dirt out, I can see that the walls of the pipe are actually pretty thin -- less than 1/8" (though it may be thinner now than it used to be from a century of rusting away). So here's what I know:

• Pipe is vertical in the ground, and extends at least a foot and half to two feet down (which is as far as I've dug).
• Pipe was found approximately ten feet from a flattened well bucket.
• Pipe is iron or some iron alloy.
• PIpe has a circumference of 18.25", so a diameter of 5.8".
• The flattened well bucket, if it were made round again, would have a diameter of 4.6", which would allow it to fit easily inside the pipe.
• Pipe has a seam on the back side of it.
• Pipe is surrounded by a lot of large rocks. No trash, no glass, no wire. Just rocks and dirt.

That all sounds like "well" to me. What do you guys think?

More photos from today:

The pipe in the hole


The edge of the pipe. Damaged, obviously, but shows the thickness of the metal. A lot of the edge is rolled over to the outside, but the area at the top center of the photo shows the actual thickness.


The seam on the back side


The rocks I've removed so far. There are still more, at least one more layer. That's the blade of a full sized shovel in the back for reference.