I found this about 20 feet from the edge of a creek on an old home site. The edge is concrete with a lip for the large lid to rest in. My first thought was that it could be the base for an outhouse but concrete seems like a heavy choice for something that needs to be relocated or accessed for cleaning periodically.
an old 'tilt up' building?
Well?
My first thought was a storm cellar of sorts. A well is more probable with the holes for extracting water, although I've never seen a well in that configuration.
Tornadoes aren't very common in this area and it's proximity to the creek would make it a death trap if used as a storm shelter. A cistern or well might make sense but the area floods easily and the surface water would've kept the cistern/well contaminated.
I'm surveying the property for the great-nephew of the former owners. I'll see if he has any knowledge of its purpose.
20 feet from a creek, if the soil was permeable gravel and sand, that 20 feet could have been a good filter for a water collector. The concrete top and lid allows access for periodic cleaning and keeps critters out. Once might have had a well house built over the concrete protecting a pump and pressure tank. Anyway it looks like some sort of old water works to me.
jud
Spring box? - is the bottom just open gravel?
A 2 holer with a bidet?
The hole appears to have been filled in with silt by the overflowing creek. The whole thing looked a little unstable so I didn't investigate beyond a visual inspection.
> 20 feet from a creek, if the soil was permeable gravel and sand, that 20 feet could have been a good filter for a water collector. The concrete top and lid allows access for periodic cleaning and keeps critters out. Once might have had a well house built over the concrete protecting a pump and pressure tank. Anyway it looks like some sort of old water works to me.
> jud
I'm guessing the same thing as Jud.
Damyankee containment device left over from the War of Northern Aggression, or whatever they call it in Tennessee these days.
Maybe an old ice pit? Old timers used to have them here. Closeness to a creek would keep it cool and damp as late into spring as possible.
Most of the cisterns around here were constructed from concrete and above the house for gravity flow. The cisterns were kept filled by windmills or in the higher country where springs could be found the water flow from them were gravity fed into the cistern and then the cistern containing a large reserve of water fed the house and house and barn lot.
The first pumps used for domestic water were demand pumps used where gravity was not enough to provide good flow. The pressure tanks of today are not that old.
Few of those old cisterns are around that have not been filled with soil. Cisterns are kid attractions, usually with rotted roofs.
jud
I agree; pretty typical to find these near water. Less digging to get to the water and has some filtering rather than pumping directly out of the lake or stream. In fact, one of my neighbors just put one in last year, about 10 feet from the lake.
