TELL ME

  • Agent641@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    35
    ·
    edit-2
    9 months ago

    Theres a mysterious stone wall that I found in the middle of nowhere in the forest with no road access that I’ve been investigating for years and nobody else cares!

    There are other weird characteristics nearby that are visible on Google maps

    Why? Who made you?

    Edit: Here is a link to a gallery of photos I’ve taken of some segments of the wall:

    https://postimg.cc/gallery/KkPj5H1

    Here is an annotated map of the area with unusual features, some of which may be natural:

    Here is the location in google maps. The sat imagery has recently been updated: https://www.google.com/maps/@-32.2335528,116.1823985,644m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu

    I’ve been out to this location 10 or so times, and in all my digging, I haven’t found a single railroad spike or tie, so I really don’t think it’s railroad-related. The bush is extremely dense, especially near the creek, and often impossible to walk through, hence the photos are from a distance.

    I did find one very large iron nail, about 1m in length, and took it home with me, but I don’t have it any more.

    On the raised band of black stone, the stones are about melon or basketball sized, much larger than railway ballast which us usually not larger than a fist. It could be a natural formation.

    • Death_Equity@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      9 months ago

      If I knew you, even casually, I would demand you take me to this mystery wall in the woods and completely disregard the risk of following relative strangers to an isolated secondary location.

    • wax@lemmy.wtf
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      9 months ago

      Is it possible that someone tried to clear the area from rocks to grow crops? I’ve seen stone walls being built around old fields

    • Classy@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      9 months ago

      Check historical maps, surveying maps, things like that. I found a massive concrete foundation once in a weird spot and it turned out over 100 years ago a railroad ran through there!

    • Death_Equity@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      9 months ago

      The forest definitely looks cleared, it is abnormally sparse in that 2sqkm vicinity compared to the surrounding area. The straight treeline adds to the artificiality.

      That 1m “nail” may be a drill bit, the old type where you hold with one hand and rotate it while you hammer the end. Does the “head” of the nail have cracks at the edges? That would date it to mid 1900s or earlier.

      I suspect it is a prospecting camp and that wall is a retaining wall for the camp perimeter. The wall looks like a common rubble wall that would be common in the early 1900s or earlier. That area is around a geologic boundary of productive granitic formations, so there are a variety of valuable natural resources that they may have been looking for.

      All I can say for certain is that I have one thing to check out if I ever find myself in Perth for some god-forsaken reason.

      • Agent641@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        9 months ago

        The nail did have a cracked, hammered head, and it had a round shift (unlike old forged nails which traditionally had a square or rectangular cross section I think. It had a 5 degree bend in it so thats probably why it was discarded. It didn’t have a twist or spiral, but maybe it was used as a ground probe to determine soil depth down to bedrock.

        Ive suspected that maybe the wall was part of a sluice or race used for washing materials.

        Ive fossicked in the dry creek bed for crystals, gemstones and gold. There is hardly any gold, but heaps of crystal.

        I reckon you’re probably right about it being a prospectors camp.

        Id love to take a metal detector out there one day to look for more iron, but alas I’m a broke boy.

      • Agent641@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        9 months ago

        The site in question lies right in the middle of the big void area between Armadale and Brookton.

        Its not impossible that there was a temporary timber-getting railway there, but the hills are very challenging terrain, and Im just not sure a train would go there.