One of the truly great things about going into the field is all the historic neatness you find: old buildings, mine shacks, old mine mills, foundations, and miscellaneous old junk. This trough first popped into my view on my first field day a couple summers ago. It was early in the morning, and I had a little time to look around.
A closer view of the "front" end of the old trough shows that people have decided to deposit miscellaneous junk inside. I didn't find anything of value (like an intact old bottle or gold coins). Those look like bullet holes on the side and a large, rock-caused hole near the bottom.
I walked around and examined the trough from all angles...
...finally coming to the "back" of the trough.
The trough is long, longer than can be seen in any one photo, always partly hidden by waist-high sagebrush and
rabbitbrush.
A straight down-sun shot reveals some shape but little texture. Both sides are lined with wooden planks.
This is the middle of the trough, with neither end in sight (an air-photo is obviously needed).
The trough is located near the spring that caused
this waterhole and near
this old car door (no longer propped up, but still present). I suspect it was used to water cows, sometime prior to the bushes growing quite so tall, prior to the paint fading, prior to it being shot up, prior to...me driving by.
One of the truly great things about going into the field is all the historic neatness you find: old buildings, mine shacks, old mine mills, foundations, and miscellaneous old junk. This trough first popped into my view on my first field day a couple summers ago. It was early in the morning, and I had a little time to look around.
A closer view of the "front" end of the old trough shows that people have decided to deposit miscellaneous junk inside. I didn't find anything of value (like an intact old bottle or gold coins). Those look like bullet holes on the side and a large, rock-caused hole near the bottom.
I walked around and examined the trough from all angles...
...finally coming to the "back" of the trough.
The trough is long, longer than can be seen in any one photo, always partly hidden by waist-high sagebrush and rabbitbrush.
A straight down-sun shot reveals some shape but little texture. Both sides are lined with wooden planks.
This is the middle of the trough, with neither end in sight (an air-photo is obviously needed).
3 comments:
Very cool old trough. I always enjoy finding old artifacts and trying to put together a story.
What strikes me is it looks like a lot of work went into building it. Makes one wonder about everyting else that was involved in the opperation of running cattle in the area at the time.
I haven't ever (yet) seen cows in the particular area, but the spring is favored by deer. Have no idea how to tell the age of the trough. It looks like the wooden posts were made of old juniper branches or trunks.
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