Tuesday, November 23, 2010

The Indian Burial Ground

A while back a gentleman stopped at our house and told us he had grown up here! His name is Eugene and his sister, Eleanor, had lived in the house until about a year before we bought it (it was empty until we purchased it). He said he and his father had built the house themselves. They hired a stonemason to lay the exterior stonework and the fireplace. They did all the carpentry and the finish work themselves. He told us that during the Great Depression his father was out of work, so they moved to Springfield, Missouri for a few years and the house stood vacant.

The little barn we have off to the side used to be a chicken coup:








 See that little blue bed frame behind the turned wood piece? I told the Mister we were going to have to salvage it if we ever had a kid. It's so precious!




Even the chicken coup was solidly built! These boys loved their concrete (hey Kim, read your comment to this post, it totally applies this week, no?) and stone.

During the course of the five hours (!) Gene was at our house, he told the Mister there was an Indian buried on our property and waved in the general direction of the hill below the chicken coupe. Well, of course, Mr. took it with a grain of salt and a smile, but when the old man left, he went looking.

Sure enough, he found an old Indian buried on our hill! 




Ha! You totally thought he found a dead body, didn't you?! hehehehe

Once he knew it was there he couldn't just let it be, he had to excavate it.





He finally finished digging it up on Saturday and managed to stand it upright.



The shifter knob was a die and it's still intact. Super cool.

I believe this is the fly wheel housing. Mister has a friend who runs an antique motorcycle shop and says, based on Mr's description, he thinks it's a 1928, 29, or 30. How crazy is that?

For those of you that live in old homes, have you ever found anything ridiculously awesome? Maybe in the basement, the attic, or even outside?

12 comments:

Kate said...

Wow! That's crazy! How neat to find something like that.

the cape on the corner said...

5 hours?! glad you were home when he stopped by. what a neat thing to unearth...i have only unearthed half a lady figurine. i have her propped outside by the garage flower bed since that's where we found her when we were digging for the garage.

and also, in the hall closet on the tippy top shelf, a kama sutra book from the 70's. holy hairy, batman!

Jess said...

Ha! Wow! What a cool find!

My husband and I found a small coin collection stashed under the floor boards in our attic a few months after we moved into our place. That was pretty cool! Not being so much of a collector of things, I sold most of the coins on ebay to help finance our renovation.

Erin said...

That is super awesome!!!! You got yourself some finds there!

Erin said...

I wish an old inhabitant of our house would show up with stories! That's awesome! We haven't found anything cool, though. I'm totally jealous.

Mom and Dem said...

One time in college, a group of guys came back to our house, where they had lived 10 years before, and found a bottle of scotch they hid in the ceiling of the pantry.

Danielle and Clint said...

Our home is a bungalow with attics on both sides of our master bedroom. Well, there is a ton of crap in one of them that I still haven't gotten to. One day, I opened the door and decided to just take a peak. I found a heart shaped box that was filled with love notes to the daughter of the old home owners from a boy. It was cute, but Clint thought I was too nosy.

Kim @ NewlyWoodwards said...

Okay, you totally got me. I thought you were serious about the Indian buried there. All the treasures you have. Amazing.

We found dozens of knives of various sizes and such in our house. They were in the strangest places. Behind a built-in cabinet in the bathroom, in the backyard, etc. I'm still hoping to find millions of dollars hidden in the walls. ;)

And, was I predicting my future in that comment? Crazy, right?

Sara @ Russet Street Reno said...

Whoa, that is pretty cool! I haven't found anything awesome. Unless you count a diaper, can of WD-40 and bottle of olive oil in the linen closet as awesome!

Shannon said...

dude. my mouth was gaping wide open, scrolling down, looking for feathers or something sticking out...such a dork. But amazing find just the same!

LizzieBeth said...

That is pretty awesome! I bet the American Pickers would have a field day in your backyard!

LB

Teri said...

Are you going to preserve any of the parts. That housing is sweet! If you're interested there is a good movie called "The World's Fast Indian" starring Anthony Hopkins.