Found this while walking with the new owner of an old plantation home. Found about 30ft away from the house under an old oak tree about 3 inches under the ground. Was told it might be a boundary marker so I put it back. Can anyone confirm what it is and/or tell me anything about the writing on the top? Thanks.
You found a $250 fine, congratulations!
😏
So it is a boundary marker. Seems strange to have it that close to a plantation home and only 3 inches of dirt to cover.
Seems too small (short) to be a boundary marker.
Given that the bottom shows signs of having been broken off of something at one time, I'm going to say that if it is part of an old boundary monument, it's not likely in it's original location. Only way to know for sure would be to find others like it and relate them and their location to the original survey that placed them. Plantations were fairly large so finding one 30' from a house raises some questions.
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
Try doing a charcoal rub on paper to see if you can raise the text, like people do on old head stones.
I did a rub. The only thing I have been able to fully make out is "Metal" and "S100". "S100" appears to be some type of metal standard. The other lettering, I cannot make out. I can see bits and pieces of lettering under the Metal word. There is what looks like a "p" turned on its side under the A of Metal. On the left side of the M looks like maybe an "n". On the left bottom looks like a 6 or 5 or S. A lot of degradation.
As just a guess I would say a metal ingot cast in a foundry in St. Louis. The word 'metal' might be part of the name (i.e. ACME METAL) and on the other end of that face, it looks like the letters 'ouis' might be made out.
That wouldn't preclude it from being a corner marker, but it might not have started life as a corner marker.
What type of metal is it? It could be an alloy that was known as Babbit for making a type of bushing on old farm equipment? It came in ingots similar to that.