Desert Find

[BosnMate]

I've been digging through my stuff, trying to find an insulator off the transcontinental telegraph. Back in the mid 60's I took a saddle horse and followed the stumps of the poles across the desert, looking for insulators. In that location, for the most part, those insulators had been picked up, because I only found part of one, and the bad news is, I don't know what became of it. But when I was looking for insulators, I found this unknown object. It was a surface find, and it appears it was bolted to wood, probably the thickness of a wagon side board, possibly as a tie-down. Is anyone on T.N. familiar with what this is? I've never seen one.

 

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[bradyboy]

Gate latch?

 

[BosnMate]

Gate latch?

Certainly possible. Because I found it when looking for artifacts from the telegraph, in my mind I dated it to that time. However, there was a pony express station along that route, which still had a good well, where we pumped water for the cows. There were no pens or any sort of corrals located at the site when I was there. All that was left was rock walls about waist high. If it was a gate latch from there, someone had to have salvaged it, and then lost it on their way out.

 

[DCMatt]

Possibly part of an iron and wood insulator. Read about them here:


US Military Telegraph -  Civil War Era Telegraph Insulators

 

[A2coins]

It looks like it could have been bolted to a pole and routed a wire??

 

[Retired Fire]

Looks like a telegraph insulator possibly. There were so many variations. Here is one.