Hello all I found this on a site I am working on in Oregon does anyone have an idea what this is? To put size in perspective it is about the size of 2 55 gallon drums. The steel it is made of is about 3/8 of inch thick.
The clue I see is that eye on the second picture. I think it is a counterweight of some sort that got filled with water or dirt. It may be a weight that was used in a mining operation.
Maybe a weight to swing a hayrack loading boom? The donkey pulled out one way, the weight swung it the other. Are there any pipe caps or bungs in it? Sometimes when they had to put donkeys out in the brush away from the tracks or roads they would skid fuel oil in to them with something like that.
It looks to have been drug from all lapped, scraped edges.
Thank you all for responding! There is an eye on both ends for a shackle I would assume. I thought it was a counterweight also but somebody went to a lot of time to shape and concave the ends. There is no bung anywhere but there is patches cut out and welded in that I am guessing they filled them. Ditch plow pulled with cable maybe?