Since I brought up water...

I have this nice old house I bought. Was actually the original farmhouse for the farmland I already own. I was looking around and there is a modern PVC well at the top of the driveway. About ten feet away is a clump of tall grass. Digging around in there I find what looks like a white plastic rectangular thing which appears to be covering something up. Whatever it is covering projects out of the ground about a foot and has rocks piled all around it. I decided against monkeying around with it until I had more info. So the seller comes by to pick up his mail and I point to it and ask him what is under the white thing. He informs me that he hasn't a clue...never looked. The owner before him is unreachable. The PR from the estate that sold the house off the original farm is just as puzzled. No one seems to know what is under this square plastic cover...measures about 3x4 feet. Is this likely to be the original well? Place was homesteaded in the 1830's. Might be some interesting old coins down there! Or it could be like that movie...whatchacallit..."The Ring"? I just hate to think there is a 10-15' hole full of water under there. How the heck does someone own a house for three years and not get curious about such a thing?

Could well be the origional well. Let us know what you get adventurous and dig it up.

Jimmy Hoffa.

septic tnk ???

(reply to post at 17:42:33 09/10/15)

Click to expand...

Missile silo.

Why play guessing games? Open it and see what it is, kind of strange question.

If the seller did not disclose any old wells on the legal sales forms, he certainly won't want to admit to knowing about any after the sale.

It's gonna happen. I'm not the sort to just leave WELL enough alone!

Ten feet from the water well? I think I'll keep bringing in the bottled water until I sort this one out!

I'm betting it's a well. Kind of freaks me out a little when I think of their two little girls climbing on this thing and they don't know what it is or how deep?

Well, actually...if you have to know...I am waiting on purpose. There are three hydrants on the property...one in the milk house, one way in the back that they let me access from time to time at the barn, and one right next to this mystery cover. Since we were buying the house to "reunite" it with the rest of the farm, I got curious and took a drink from the hydrant. The water was very good, but on the off chance this thing is in fact the original well and on the off chance that the hydrants are running off an old pump in there...well....

Let's just say I am in no hurry to open it up and find I have been drinking out of an open well with a dead rat floating in it...or a bunch of toads. I think I'll wait a month or so. Then I can tell myself whatever I find was NOT in there when I took my drink.

Since you're talking about a farm, you could have the site of an old windmill. My dad converted ours to an electric pump and installed indoor plumbing in 1952. Most windmills were built to pump water for livestock farms. The actual pump was under ground in some sort of pit, and the well pipe continued down further into the ground. The pump would need new leather seals and other maintenance requiring a workspace underground. This design also kept everything from freezing. Back then, the pit had a very well constructed concrete top deck, with a very thick and heavy concrete door/cap that allowed access but prevented kids from entering. My house now still has most everything still intact from a similar setup. The pit is about 3' across and 6' deep and made of field stones and covered with a (treated) wood deck and sits about 12' from the original side of the house. The old windmill now lays an the ground behind the barn and the well pipe contains a submersible pump with pressure tank in the nearby basement. A freeze proof hydrant now sits on the site, and plastic pipe for two additional building radiate out from the well pit. I've been here 38 years and nothing has ever frozen. The bases for the four legs are still present, and now that I'm retired, I plan on restoring and setting up the windmill for looks. From what you describe, you have something similar.

sure, could be an old well.
If it is, be careful around the edges of the small cap.
Our very deep, hand dug, stacked stone well had the smaller access opening for climbing down into it and getting the critters out.
But the actual well top was much larger.
I spent a lot of time down in ours when I was a kid cleaning out critters.(I could fit thru the opening...)

also, any evidence of a small building around it?
very old muck farm where I used to play, small building filled with drums of ancient chemicals. Small opening in the floor...well under it. Water to mix the chemicals....or dump them.....