Back in the Woods: Bowls to Buckets

     Laying in survey lines today brought us to a new site along yet another old road in the woods.

          Here and there, enamel bowls poke out among the leaves. These bowls always manage to survive, generally with a few rusty holes, but otherwise recognizable. This, when nothing remains of a home but a few bricks and old iron. Known as graniteware, speckled ware, or agateware, the popular kitchen and bath goods came in dozens of colors. Patented over 150 years ago, their popularity peaked in the late 1800s through the 1930s when lightweight aluminum took their place (we still encounter a few examples today, often in the form of camping dishes and cups). Designs in the heyday included speckling, marbleizing, and solids, sometimes with prints. Many of the examples we come across on surveys are common blues, grays, whites, and greens.

          The bowls are not the only above-ground remains here,  a three-sided fieldstone box marks the footprint of a small building. It seems quite small for a house and the open west side suggests a shed of some kind. Behind it, ferns encircle a 5-foot, leaf-filled depression. An iron framework from a piece of machinery with two ratcheting gears, similar to a small manure spreader, pokes out of the leaf mold in between.

Mystery depression- perhaps a well or privy

Remains of a piece of equipment

Small frame structure- may have been an open shed, judging by the stones on which it sat. Some of the stones, like that on the right, were more regularly cut.

          Scraps of roofing, crushed tin cans and other debris lay around the site. What at first seemed to be an iron strap buried in leaves turned out to be a crosscut saw. This particular example is a felling saw, used for cutting down trees as opposed to cutting up logs into sections. The tooth pattern is known as 'perforated lance', used for mixed woods including hardwoods. The lance teeth, looking like sections of picket fence, are sharpened on alternate tips and do all the cutting. The 'Y' shaped raker teeth in between serve to clear sawdust out of the cut so the felling can proceed.

          One more small item lay down slope from the foundations, a 6 oz. graduated medicine bottle with a black bakelite screw cap. The late 1920s-1930s art deco style bottle bears on its base the script 'Rexall'.

          Rexall (rex from the 'rx' abbreviation of 'prescription) was the first nationally licensed drugstore chain. Spanning 1902 to 1977, it peaked in the 1920s-1950s with only slightly fewer independent Rexall drugstores than there are McDonald's restaurants today.

Look for the orange and blue sign and stop in to see your neighborhood Rexall Druggist. Good Health to all, From Rexall!

          Saving the best for last, one more surprise lay down the slope on the edge of a small ravine. We have found a number of cars on base- some abandoned when farm communities were dispersed as the fort expanded, others brought in as targets for the firing ranges and obstacles for training courses. We've seen a couple of prewar examples, including a truck so blasted that only the dashboard remained standing. Today's find was thus a treat!

          Although most of the small parts and engine are gone, it appears all the fenders, doors, and hood are there among the leaves. This car, for one, seems to have managed to find a place on base to rest in peace (yes..a few bullet holes, but still!).

And what is it? Well, Ford folks can correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks to be about a 1925-27 Model T roadster pickup.

 The roadster body (aka T-bucket to the hot rod crowd) with the open frame in the back and this arrangement of holes in the rear corners probably make this a pickup.

Ford made roadsters in a variety of different configurations. 137,344 pickups were built between 1925 and 1927 and cost between $281 and $381 (akin to $3500-5000 today).

Ford Model T Roadster Pickup. Image: gomotors.net

          Of course, there are other things lying around in the woods. It isn't every day you come across a crashed helicopter. But that's another story...

Sources:
Cross-cut Saws
http://northernwoodlands.org/articles/article/using_a_crosscut_saw

Rexall:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rexall

Model T:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/1923-1927-ford-model-t5.htm
http://gomotors.net/Ford/Ford-Model-T-Roadster-Pickup/photos.html?pic=4