Iron Wedge?...date of 3" spikes

[deepskyal]

Iron Wedge?...date of 3" spikes

Found these near the entrance of an old 1860's coal mine. The spikes are 3". Anyone got a date or use for them?

The other object is a wedge shaped hunk of iron. I'm thinking maybe for splitting wood or rock, except for the large center bulge. I'm guessing it weighs about 2 pounds.
From the bottom, it almost looks as though it was attached to a handle.

I also found a couple tags in the same area. One was right on the surface and the other was close to 5" deep and has the number 6 on it. I can't make any detail on the other.

Al

 

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[Monty]

Re: Iron Wedge?...date of 3" spikes

The spikes may have been used on a narow set of tracks to move ore out of the mine? Don't know about the others. Monty

 

[ALABEAR]

Re: Iron Wedge?...date of 3" spikes

The spikes were used on the rails in the mines. The Brass tags were used by the miners. When they went into the mines they took a number. If anything happened in the mines they could account for the miners by the tags. That is one thing I heard. The other thing I was told is that when a miner would load a coal car in the mines and it was pulled out it would have his tag on it so they would know who loaded the coal and the miner was paid for the coal he loaded

 

[deepskyal]

Re: Iron Wedge?...date of 3" spikes

Thanks ALABEAR...that's really interesting info in the tags. The tags are brass.

Al