✅ SOLVED Stone Chamber in the Woods

[mshlbelle]

During one of our creek walks years ago, we found this stone chamber built into the side of the hill near the creek. We went back to look at it today to get a closer look. Unfortunately, it is starting to slide into the creek due to erosion. The ceiling and floor are made of large flat stones. I included a picture of my niece in the opening for frame of reference. We live in Cincinnati, Ohio if that helps.

 

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[jamey]

get a metal detector and check it out good,what a wonderful spot to have come upon.

 

[mirage83]

No idea who may have built it or why, but that is VERY interesting. I'd do a quick walkabout in the area to see if there are any more structures or remains of structures hiding somewhere.

 

[yelnif]

That is a great looking site- it might be an old root cellar or a cache site for early explorers. I would look around for any signs of a old foundation (home site)- that might mean a root cellar. Spend some time with your MD and see what turns up- definitely human made, no telling what they may have dropped or buried!!! HH
Do you think or know if this is a well known about hole in the ground/ are there signs of modern visitation? ie- beer, pop cans, candy wrappers?

 

[mshlbelle]

It's on my neighbor's property. She has 50+ acres that adjoin our 13 acres. In the 9 years we've lived here, I've occasionally run across a kid or two playing in the creek and I know area kids ride 4-wheelers back there... but, no, it isn't well known. In fact, I've asked my neighbors about it and none of them knew it existed. You have to be looking for it because the entrance was covered by honeysuckle and pricker bushes. We stumbled upon it by chance.

It use to be very cool looking when we first found it, but now the hill is sliding into the creek and the entrance (green mossy rocks) are gone. What the pictures don't depict is that it's actually quite high up and difficult to get to.

So I was just looking through my pictures from today to see if I had one that shows how it sits on the hill and how it's eroding away. I also pulled up my pictures from when we first found it on April 10, 2010. In my original post above, the two on the left (showing mossy green entrance) are from 2010 and the interior shot is from today. Now that I have the photos side by side I'm no longer certain it's the same stone chamber. The 2010 photos don't look like they have a stone floor and the rocks don't appear to be as brick-like. Maybe my daughters and I found a new one today?! If so, they must be very close together. My husband said he'll go down to the creek with us tomorrow and tell me if it's the same structure or not. He grew up playing in these woods (all of the collective properties together were his grandpa's before he parceled them out) and he said he can take me right back to the stones we found in 2010.

This is a photo of the entrance to the structure we saw today. It's taken from the creek looking up.


This is a photo of the exit to the structure we saw today. It's taken from the hillside looking down.



And if you're interested, I stuck my phone in and took a quick video so I could get a better look at it. Here's the video:

 

[Longknife]

Very interesting find! Has my curiosity up!

At 1st I thought so sort of chimney but I don't see any signs of charring/smoke.

If you don't mind my asking could you be a little more specific where you found this? I live in Northern KY & work in Cincinnati so am very familiar with the area.

 

[mirage83]

Well, someone went to a lot of trouble to move and stack all that stone, so it had some purpose (practical? recreational?) at one time. Hopefully you'll find some clues in the immediate area.

 

[mshlbelle]

I just got back from taking my husband down to the stone chamber we found yesterday... and it's a completely different structure than the one we found in 2010! They are just around the bend from each other. Structure A (that we originally found in 2010) has mossy stones at the entrance and has filled in with quite a lot of dirt. Structure B (that we found yesterday), is clear front to back, but the entrance is missing due to a landslide from a bad storm. Both structures are about the same distance up the side of the creek bed.

Here are some photos from today.

The first two are structure B. The pictures show where they sit in relation to the creek and how you can see clear through from the front to the back.



The second two are structure A. The entrance is intact, but it has partially filled with dirt.



We're going to take the MD down in the next day or two and see if we can find anything. Re: where in Cincy... we're in the Anderson/Mt. Carmel area.

 

[MineralsAndThings]

It looks like it would have been used to store things. I can not see it being used as shelter or anything else.

 

[BamaBill]

See if there is any ash in the dirt floor. It looks like a kiln to me.

 

[UncleMatt]

moonshine cache? lol

 

[Pointman]

I think that it is way too small for a root cellar. The window looks like it was intentional to let light in. If it was a kiln of some sort there would be charring on the rocks. I am curious if the part you found was only a small portion of what is left and the rest could have been washed down.

 

[Red James Cash]

Me thinks it could possibly be an underground stone chamber built by the Celts.There quite a few in Mass.One small stone chamber not to far from me.To bad,the one you possibly have there is collapsing.Looks built the same way,a small tunnel to crawl through until you reach the interior,then it opens up.sometimes there a hole in the wall that the sun will shine through at certain times of the year.

 

[dnewbury2]

Was there a road on the bank that passes over these? I've seen something similar in my area. It was a culvert built of stone to allow water to pass under the road. It looked very similar.

 

[releventchair]

A ten gallon milk tank is a couple foot tall. Enough running water could cool it before transporting it farther from a relay point?

 

[DCMatt]

Right by the creek like that, my first thought was sewage outlet.

People were dumping raw sewage directly into rivers and streams well into the 20th C. Some probably still do.

Check around for house foundations nearby.

DCMatt

 

[mshlbelle]

Right by the creek like that, my first thought was sewage outlet.

People were dumping raw sewage directly into rivers and streams well into the 20th C. Some probably still do.

Check around for house foundations nearby.

DCMatt

^^^ Least favorite suggestion so far!

 

[AU Seeker]

My first thought as has been mentioned is a ancient pre-Columbus structure, which it still could be, but in your last set of photos the B set shows what looks like more of the structure that is mostly gone, in the stream bank are horizontal stones that looks to be part of a bigger/taller wall, I think it may have been a "root cellar" that was built across the stream, with the stream running through the cellar. I have seen similar root cellars in the north Georgia mountains near where I was raised, the cool running water keep the temperature constant within the cellar, the cellars I have seen were built over small streams and I think the stream there was at one time a much smaller stream that has grow wider/bigger over the many years since the structure was built and wash away the main structure, the shafts that you have found were to left air circulate and to let in light.

Check the other side of the stream for more of the possible structure to see if this is a possibility.

 

[patiodadio]

Wow ! Great find ! I vote for Celts stone chamber.

 

[filmiracle]

Being that it's right next to a creek, I'd say it's part of an old mill of some kind.