What could this be?

[Lyndajane]

Hi. I found this buried one foot down the side of a creek beneath very old tree. Can't get it out without cutting roots but don't know if its worth the effort. Any ideas what it is? Looks like a screw but it is very big. 5 inch diameter flat bottomed mushroon pommel, square bolt. Dont know how long the stem is as it is as covered by roots. It may also be attached to something else. Must have been there at least 100 years. Thanks.

 

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[kcm]

It's a ground anchor. I'd guess probably from the 50's; 60's maybe. A lot depends on where you are, weather conditions, amount of moisture, near town or not, etc, etc.

 

[Backwoodsbob]

I found something very similar to it. When I dug it up it was 5' long. It had a piece at the bottom that looked like a fan blade. It had four sides.. the strange thing about it the top was 2' underground to start with.

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[tamrock]

Could be a "strut rod" for those old iron bridges that once where found along the country roads across the country. So many have been demolished and replaced with newer concrete bridges over the last 50 years. When I go home to Iowa I like to go to some of the old places I would explore and I can recall a few of the old bridges that once crossed the creeks of the old rural roads that are no longer there and now replaced with newer concrete bridges. I took a picture of this old iron bride up by old Ft. Laramie in Wyoming and I think it was built before the battle of the little big horn. You can see the bolted strut rods that keep the bridge ridged. Still it could be an anchor bolt used in a wood crib ground control retention wall to holding the walls up of an old brick structure as, those big iron washers were used for many applications from the 19th century to more recent times.

 

[Tony in SC]

It's a nut and washer. That setup is for holding timbers and boards together. Almost all wooden farm equiptment had smaller ones (1/2" or so). Things like grist mills and water wheels would have larger ones. I've seen the square nuts as large as 3" across. Tony

 

[against the wind]

Excellent responses,, I don't see that stuff too often in NYC.
Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Lyndajane]

Thanks everyone. When i eventually get it out i will post picture.

 

[HunterII]

Post tension bolt for a stress laminated timber bridge deck.

 

[Peyton Manning]

ummm don't expect it to be worth anything