Huge iron barrel in the woods. What was it used for?

[FreeBirdTim]

Found this while detecting along a stream in the woods. It's a really big iron barrel or bin. It's about 4 feet high and the diameter is probably the same. What the heck was this used for? I don't see any large foundations nearby, so there wasn't a factory in this area.

Any guesses? Here's a few pics:

 

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[Silver Searcher]

Hope you didn't have to dig that up mate.

SS

 

[FreeBirdTim]

Hope you didn't have to dig that up mate.

LOL! Nah, just sitting there above ground. If it was closer to the road, it would be mine! I'd find some way to get it into the back of a truck and take it home.

 

[bigfoot1]

looks like part of a boiler

 

[Bruce R]

Possibly a part from a steam boiler? Something left behind by a long ago timbering operation?

 

[old digger]

It would make a good backyard fire pit.

 

[FreeBirdTim]

Could be part of a steam boiler. There was a sawmill in the area a long time ago, but I didn't think it was in that spot.

 

[FreeBirdTim]

It would make a good backyard fire pit

My thoughts exactly! Biggest fire pit in the neighborhood!

 

[Nitric]

It would make a good backyard fire pit.

That was my first thought too,,,,looks like something my friends and i would have taken to our "secret" campsite in the woods years ago.

 

[joesmarbles]

Turn it on it's side and roll it out of there.....Joe McDonough

 

[ARC]

Welp... It looks like some kids got a hold of a can of dads spray paint and sat inside doing their "artwork"...

Ahhh the fumes must have been great in there.

 

[FreeBirdTim]

Welp... It looks like some kids got a hold of a can of dads spray paint and sat inside doing their "artwork"

Yup, I photographed the good sides with scribbles and peace signs and not the bad sides with various obscenities sprayed on them!

 

[knighthunter]

Possibly a part from a steam boiler? Something left behind by a long ago timbering operation?

Or from a moonshiner boiling brew a long time ago.

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

Or from a moonshiner boiling brew a long time ago.

That would have been copper barrel.

 

[2Minnesota]

Section of a culvert? You mentioned stream and road.

 

[gunsil]

Yup, I photographed the good sides with scribbles and peace signs and not the bad sides with various obscenities sprayed on them!

Actually those are Mercedes emblems, not peace symbols, I guess those kids weren't too smart!! And the "peace symbol" isn't really that either, it is a "nuclear disarmament" symbol. The symbol is the letters N&D (for nuclear disarmament) in semaphore flag signals set in a circle. It has been mistaken for so long that most everybody sees it as a peace symbol. I believe the iron in question is definitely a piece of an old boiler.

 

[scavanau]

Looks like a piece of water conduit for the sawmill.

 

[Bruce R]

F.B.T. I'm dying to know, did you drag that damned thing home or not?