[HairOfTheDog]

ecurbh and I were walking my Dad around the back forty today, showin him the new fence and he was looking for trees to cut for firewood, and ecurbh sees this hole in the ground, looks at first like a rabbit hole till we swept away the dirt.

He says... "Ummm.... there is a big problem here"

Explain this to me. Somebody buried a 55-gallon drum. up-side down. Empty.

Bad things happen to a horse that steps in that. It is hard to tell the depth in the pictures (I should have stood in it) but it is nearly the whole drum deep. You can see both rings in the sides in the next pictures.

(Looking through the hole)

We dug around enough to know that it was going to be a huge job to dig it all the way out with one shovel to our name. So I cut the bottom (top?) out with the sawz-all and we filled it in place.

It is at least safe now.... Will keep an eye out for erosion or packdown where we might need to fill more over it.

[PurpleQ]

that's creepy...why would someone do that?

[2Jedismom]

Maybe a covered-up outhouse hole?

Maybe a body buried in the bottom?

Wow...that is wierd.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

I am relieved, actually... when you mentioned a "monstrosity", my imagination ran wild for a minute...

[Ramius]

That's bizarre. I can't figure what such a thing would be used for. It sure does raise the question about whether there are any more like that.

Seems to me that somebody that does something that odd isn't going to do it just once. It might be time to get back in there with a metal detector.

Question: Are you *sure* that it was just dirt down below there? Did you dig down in the bottom of it?

[g'nad]

I'm with winmag on this... the barrel was a stash...

you neutralized the threat quite well imho...

[osagebowman]

Evening All; got sorta caught up eating supper but had a dickens of a time getting back in, no matter;

Hair; initially I'd have gone with Ramius' theory, I've seen that sort thing before for intermittent or low volume sewage disposal, like a camper, camp or kennel. But your other "finds" lead a bit of credance to the "stash-lab" scenario; still it could just be the debbitage from less than stellar house-keeping.