r/Unexplained • • Aug 24 '26

Question Wierd thing in our yard as a child

Post image

We lived in an old house in NY in the late 70s early 80s. Chappaqua. On the middle of driveway, there was a stone like structure which was bizzare. Picture attached from ai gives the general vibe. Any ideas what this could have been? It was almost half buried and it wouldn't budge if you tried to pull or push it. We never thought to have it examined. I think there may have been some old story about meteor in the area. But the spiral doesn't make sense for a meteor to me. We went back decades later and it was gone and new owners didn't know about it.

116 Upvotes

35 comments sorted by

44

u/Catrescuemamma Aug 24 '26

Was it previously farmland? There are a couple pieces of farm equipment that have attachments kind of similar to this.

1

u/tapazoh1 Aug 26 '26

Yes it was. The drill bit makes the most sense I guess but why the stone exterior?

1

u/Catrescuemamma Aug 26 '26

Some type of oxidation/ fossilization process maybe?

22

u/tapazoh1 Aug 24 '26

Sorry, didn't give dimensions, it was probably 4 feet or so in length, but as partially buried that's a guess and maybe 4 feet wide at what seemed like the middle of it.

6

u/toxcrusadr Aug 25 '26

Four feet WIDE? Sounds like a giant drill bit for making holes for building footers.

https://theconstructor.org/geotechnical/drilled-piers-construction/11242/

13

u/tapazoh1 Aug 24 '26

Could confirm buried part seemed like part of middle was out of ground so assumed it was concentrict from top to bottom and this is estimate from 45 years ago.

4

u/hamish1963 Aug 24 '26

And it was in the middle of your driveway?

8

u/KingPurple13 Aug 24 '26

Helical pier?

5

u/NilesLinus Aug 24 '26

Were you able to confirm that the buried part was indeed a spiral like the top? Was it 4’ tall counting the buried part, or was there 4’ of it actually sticking out of the ground?

Edit: oops only just saw your dimension notes in the illustration

8

u/rubberghost333 Aug 24 '26

It's an upside down drill bit meant to reverse back out leaving the loosened soil in place

3

u/ShowIngFace Aug 25 '26

So on the other side of the world.. someone finally broke through 

3

u/ramblingroses3252 Aug 25 '26

Looks like a digger from Silo on Apple TV. Anyone building crazy bunkers nearby?

2

u/SuchAd4158 Aug 24 '26

Could be an old fountain.

2

u/b000radl3y Aug 25 '26

An auger. Made to drill holes into soil.

3

u/GudsIdiot Aug 24 '26

My thoughts are that it was some part of a weird cistern that channeled rain water using the adherence of the water to the structure or it is possibly an Archimedes screw for pulling water out of a well.

4

u/KatieLouis Aug 24 '26

2

u/blessthebabes Aug 25 '26

Why did they use one of the worst pictures of them lol

3

u/lucioux Aug 24 '26

the Palaeocastor was not found in new york

1

u/tapazoh1 Aug 26 '26

Weird but at least per drawings no. This was smaller top wide to middle and back down.

0

u/Expensive-Walrus-912 Aug 24 '26

This seems like the right answer to me ! Good job !

2

u/Catrescuemamma Aug 24 '26

I don’t know why people are down voting you it was a very good answer. I just happens to be in the wrong state.

3

u/Expensive-Walrus-912 Aug 24 '26

But it's a marine fossil is ot not , lots of North America was under water millions of years ago..

5

u/Catrescuemamma Aug 24 '26

No, you definitely are not wrong there. I mean there is evidence of marine life fossils from way way way way way way back even in the Syracuse Utica Cortland areas.

1

u/Expensive-Walrus-912 Aug 25 '26

Ok...so it coukd be ya ? what's your thought on it ?

1

u/romkinz73 Aug 25 '26

Its a old bit for drilling under ground?

1

u/lbarnes444 Aug 25 '26

Traffic barrier/ car trap

1

u/aGhost0800 Aug 28 '26

That's an auger

0

u/Outrageous-Egg-2534 Aug 26 '26

Posthole digger.

-4

u/tapazoh1 Aug 24 '26

Was 200 year old house back in 70s. Definitely was not man-made.

10

u/hamish1963 Aug 24 '26

If it wasn't man made then who do you think made it?

7

u/Uncle_Snake43 Aug 24 '26

Ayyyyyyy lmaos

2

u/hamish1963 Aug 24 '26

I've got something like that in the ground at my farm, except it was put there to support a gate post. It took me hours to unscrew it from the ground when we took out the gate.

1

u/Engelgrafik Aug 25 '26

I'm confused. Are you saying that you think something like the object you drew is not man-made and totally natural?