Weird, cool stuff you found in the woods.

CO has lots of old silver and gold mines too, right? Most of hte mines here were timber structures with rock/masonry foundations. The concrete here is unusual but they completed the railroad first and then the mill building so getting materials on site was much more efficient...probably had a lot to do with it.

"The completion of the Montana Southern Railway was a tremendous asset to the construction of the mill. This huge building covered nearly two acres. For winter work it boasted steam heat and also had an up-to-date fire protection system of hydrant, hose, and sprinkler. Completed in 1922, at a cost of $900,000, the finished structure was truly overwhelming as it still is today, although time and scavengers have taken their toll."

http://www.gorp.com/parks-guide/tra...national-forest-montana-sidwcmdev_066348.html

 

Took my camera for a drive today hoping to find some birds to photograph and I happened to stumble upon an odd vehicle graveyard of sorts. I've driven by this spot a dozen or more times and never stopped. Since I didn't find any birds I decided to stop and explore so I'd have maybe something to photograph. From the road you just see a few stray pieces of metals sticking out of the ground. Then as you walk further away from the road there are more and more pieces. And there is at least one complete car of some variety completely buried - just the dash and door sills are visible. I didn't want to spend too much time at this site as the ground had a lot of soft spots...I was afraid the dirt would give way and I'd end up in the trunk or something!
I'll post pics in a few but I think I found an old tractor, a late 30's or early 40's truck cab, and some sort of sedan. I can't imagine how or why they ended up where they are!

 

And here are the cars...or what's left of them...
The first find, what I think is an old tractor or some type of farm equipment. Pretty sure the rest of it is buried under the mound of dirt to the rear/left of the photo.

And the truck with a furnace? I'm really not sure

Another view of the truck. The door says "**CHACHE BROS. PAINT" Couldn't make out much else except a "BOZ" for Bozeman, MT so it was used by a local business at some point.

And the car. The hole in the foreground is probably the trunk. I didn't venture on top of it and used that hole as a reference point to avoid standing on the vehicle itself

A closer look at the dash - you can make out the steering wheel and instrument panel and the door sills. Convertibles in MT are rare so I'm guessing the roof collapsed on top of the seats




This area is near a major river and I know that they used to bury old vehicles along riverbanks to prevent erosion. I can hear the environmentalists cringing...but they didn't know any better back then. But the river is about 70 yards or so away so it seems odd that these vehicles are just buried in the middle of a bunch of farmland