BeeKool
Well-Known Member
About five years ago the government had too much money so it decided to widen a a highway near my farm.
Crossing this highway is an old abandoned Rock Island Railroad right of way. At various points along this old r.o.w. it crosses creeks, ditches roads, ect.
At all of these places are old stone bridges. When they widened the highway there was an old stone bridge on either side. They replaced it with culverts but I managed to repossess. (They were on my property) several large limestone slabs. I thought they were cool. Well yesterday I put one of them to use.
This makes that forklifts tires squat more than picking up an old truck or a pallet of seed. I'm guessing it weighs at least 5000lbs.
You can see the drill marks made when the stone was quarried. A bridge across a creek about a mile down the r.o.w. that we still use has the year 1867 inscribed on it so I'm guessing this bridge was built that same year. Although the nearest town to us has 2 quarries, neither town was yet established in 1867. In fact only one two towns in the county were. This was no man's land back then. This particular railroad line was one the first in the state and ran from near the S. Dakota/Iowa/MN border to near the Illinois border in a northwest to east central direction.
I've found many cool old artifacts walking this old line.
Crossing this highway is an old abandoned Rock Island Railroad right of way. At various points along this old r.o.w. it crosses creeks, ditches roads, ect.
At all of these places are old stone bridges. When they widened the highway there was an old stone bridge on either side. They replaced it with culverts but I managed to repossess. (They were on my property) several large limestone slabs. I thought they were cool. Well yesterday I put one of them to use.
This makes that forklifts tires squat more than picking up an old truck or a pallet of seed. I'm guessing it weighs at least 5000lbs.
You can see the drill marks made when the stone was quarried. A bridge across a creek about a mile down the r.o.w. that we still use has the year 1867 inscribed on it so I'm guessing this bridge was built that same year. Although the nearest town to us has 2 quarries, neither town was yet established in 1867. In fact only one two towns in the county were. This was no man's land back then. This particular railroad line was one the first in the state and ran from near the S. Dakota/Iowa/MN border to near the Illinois border in a northwest to east central direction.
I've found many cool old artifacts walking this old line.
