One Less Old Farm Site in IL

[Brett]

I've been seeing this coming for a couple weeks now. Finally during the middle of a snow storm they are burning this baby to the ground. My Dad and I were working on getting permission to hunt this one from the realtor but they would never call us back. So now that it's burnin' all of those nails are going everywhere! I don't like to ever say never, but dang it's not going to be any easier to hunt it now... unless there were some caches buried UNDER the barn.

 

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[Lowbatts]

Mikey and me hit a spot up in McHenry County that they had burned to make way for FP improvements. Turned out the old farmhouse was built in three stages. The most recent was clearly evident by the construction of the basement, with the first addition adjoining it with a stone-walled cellar. The original however was clearly a log cabin, thick silled and dirt floored with the later additions virtually walling it in and surrounding it.

Under the dirt floor it turned out rats had tunneled extensively and hidden away goodies they had removed from the house. Lots of cloth bits with buttons, knick knacks, small shiny things, etc. down to four feet below the original floor. Neatest thing was a jar under the original door threshold apparently deliberately placed there by the original inhabitants. Well that and all the dessicated rats in the burrows.

 

[twistidd]

Bummer on the barn burn. If you ever get permission, you can always hunt the surrounding areas though, shouldn't be as much iron there.

Tim, I remember you telling me that story, very interesting. Was there anything in that jar?

Joe

 

[Lowbatts]

No Joe, just some old air in that jar. But you never know what might be in an old site or where in that old site it might be.

A lot of the older barns around here are like my Uncle's, put together with wood dowels and showing the hand-hewn timbers throughout, virtually nail-free. The primary exception being the floor as they generally require rework and repair at some point in their history.