Old cartpath-road in the woods.

[Blind Squirrel]

I have found what I believe is an old road or something in the woods not far from an existing road. They run parallel and are about 100 yds apart. What I don't understand is the bed of this trail in the woods is sunken. Was it common in the old days to build roads or trails with high sides? I would just dismiss it as an old creekbed, but it is too straight and it is the same width (12-15ft) for a couple of hundred yards. There are small trees growing in the bed so it must have been there for a good while.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks and HH.

 

[lumbercamp]

Probably an old RR grade. They ran very level. I have come across a lot of old RR beds that the workers would dig through any change in elevation of the grade. This would include removing any size rocks that they would come across too.

 

[Siegfried Schlagrule]

Grader crews would use a team of mules and a blade. They would begin work in the spring when the ground was soft and drag the blade scraping the dirt ahead of it to fill the ruts and potholes. They would continue working past spring but they could do more miles while the ground was soft in a day. Obviously if you continue scraping an inch or two every year and spilling out on the sides eventually you will get a sunken road bed. Read some of the accounts of the battles of the civil war where the troops could march down the sunken roads without being seen and pop up behind the enemy and rout them. siegfried schlagrule

 

[Dwight S]

Do some research on "plank roads" and see if that fits what you may be seeing. Throughout our state these roads were constructed because of the poor drainage after heavy rains. They were in essence "toll roads". I know of several that criss-crossed the state in the early-mid 1800's, namely between Fayetteville and Salem, Fayetteville & Goldsboro & Raleigh.

 

[Zincoln Miner]

it is probably part of the original road.I have hit up a couple of these spurs were the modern road
bypasses for whatever reason (better enginering?) and took home an IH or Wheat here and there.