Need some creative ideas.....found a stone fence post

[j-bird]

I have a stone fence post (not sure of it's age) that I am looking for ideas on what to do with it.

Its about 7 feet long and about 6" square - and a HEAVY S.O.B! You can see the top is rounded and towards the top there is some sort of metal rod thru it. The bottom is wider than the type as expected for a fence post.

Just looking for something creative to do with it. Not really looking forward to digging the hole to set it, but it may come to that....I'll find a post hole digger for my tractor to borrow.

 

[DocHolladay]

Make a question post out of it. Set it in the ground in an odd place and then let people walk by and ask, "What is that". You can tell them anything they want to hear.

Set it like it is supposed to be and use it as a "Weather Post".

• If the post is wet, it's raining.
• If the post casts a shadow, the sun is shining.
• If the post does not cast a shadow and is not wet, the sky is cloudy.
• If the post is not visible, it is foggy.
• If the post is white, it is snowing.
• If the post is coated with ice, there is a frost.
• If the ice is thick, it's a heavy frost.
• If the post is bouncing, there is an earthquake.
• If the post is under water, there is a flood.
• If the post is warm, it is sunny.
• If the post is missing, there was a tornado.
• If the post is wet and swinging violently, there is a hurricane.
• If the post has white splats on it, watch out for birds.

 

[Turkey Creek]

I have seen a lot of them where people take them to a stone cutter or headstone maker and get their family name engraved on them and set in the ground as a sign.

 

[j-bird]

I have seen a lot of them where people take them to a stone cutter or headstone maker and get their family name engraved on them and set in the ground as a sign.

I was sort of thinking something similar......I was thinking of replacing the rod in it and hanging metal letters that spell out the family name or the like. I'm not sure I want to really manipulate the stone itself.

 

[j-bird]

Make a question post out of it. Set it in the ground in an odd place and then let people walk by and ask, "What is that". You can tell them anything they want to hear.

Set it like it is supposed to be and use it as a "Weather Post".

• If the post is wet, it's raining.
• If the post casts a shadow, the sun is shining.
• If the post does not cast a shadow and is not wet, the sky is cloudy.
• If the post is not visible, it is foggy.
• If the post is white, it is snowing.
• If the post is coated with ice, there is a frost.
• If the ice is thick, it's a heavy frost.
• If the post is bouncing, there is an earthquake.
• If the post is under water, there is a flood.
• If the post is warm, it is sunny.
• If the post is missing, there was a tornado.
• If the post is wet and swinging violently, there is a hurricane.
• If the post has white splats on it, watch out for birds.

Aren't you a funny guy! I will correct you though. If the post is missing there was much, much more than a tornado!!! Damn thing has to weight several hundred pounds. Gonna take more than a tornado for it to be "gone"!

 

[j-bird]

Went out and showed it to my boy last night.....turns out it's more like 8 to 10 inches square. It was pretty dark when I screwed with it last and I did the whole "hand spread" like when you measure fish thing..... I'll clean it up this weekend some and see what I come up with. I will say I'm not digging that hole to set it by hand.....no way!

 

[T-Max]

That is a neat piece of history right there. When my dad was a boy, they had two of these flanking the sidewalk leading to the house. Where your metal rod is, theirs had an eye bolt with a steel ring in it. They used to tether their horses to the rings when they came in for lunch.

 

[Kabic]

It almost looks like they had a form for the above ground portion and just poured the concrete in the hole for the below ground portion..

 

[Jeff H]

Make a question post out of it. Set it in the ground in an odd place and then let people walk by and ask, "What is that". You can tell them anything they want to hear.

Set it like it is supposed to be and use it as a "Weather Post".

• If the post is wet, it's raining.
• If the post casts a shadow, the sun is shining.
• If the post does not cast a shadow and is not wet, the sky is cloudy.
• If the post is not visible, it is foggy.
• If the post is white, it is snowing.
• If the post is coated with ice, there is a frost.
• If the ice is thick, it's a heavy frost.
• If the post is bouncing, there is an earthquake.
• If the post is under water, there is a flood.
• If the post is warm, it is sunny.
• If the post is missing, there was a tornado.
• If the post is wet and swinging violently, there is a hurricane.
• If the post has white splats on it, watch out for birds.

Now that's hillarious !

 

[T-Max]

It almost looks like they had a form for the above ground portion and just poured the concrete in the hole for the below ground portion..

I'm pretty sure this is a carved limestone block.

 

[Turkey Creek]

Yea as T-max just said they are pretty common in parts of KS especially. They have a lot of limestone layers. The ones I see tend to be 6-12" thick and fracture in segments. You can see quite a few old limestone block houses and buildings in Northeastern KS. My daughter goes to K-State and a lot of the older buildings were made from limestone blocks.

 

[j-bird]

I'm pretty sure it's a single piece of limestone. I think they simply finished the top portion for some reason. That is the puzzling part. It seems to "finished" to be where it was for a basic fence post. Why go to the trouble for a fence post.....but who knows. I have contacted my county just in case it has some sort of significance, but I doubt it does. I'll do something with it to put it to use at some point in time. It sure isn't going to blow away or walk off...... I saw somewhere limestone weights between 135 and 160 lbs per cubic foot....meaning it weights at least 600 lbs or more.

 

[Kabic]

I'm pretty sure it's a single piece of limestone. I think they simply finished the top portion for some reason. That is the puzzling part. It seems to "finished" to be where it was for a basic fence post. Why go to the trouble for a fence post.....but who knows. I have contacted my county just in case it has some sort of significance, but I doubt it does. I'll do something with it to put it to use at some point in time. It sure isn't going to blow away or walk off...... I saw somewhere limestone weights between 135 and 160 lbs per cubic foot....meaning it weights at least 600 lbs or more.

This just reminded me of this article that I read a while ago

http://www.capjournal.com/news/bord...cle_67a0fbd6-a2ba-11e4-a5b3-876c5038bf5b.html


only thing similar I can google up for Indiana is Right of Way markers, but that would have something like R/W engraved in it.

 

[Mennoniteman]

Make a question post out of it. Set it in the ground in an odd place and then let people walk by and ask, "What is that". You can tell them anything they want to hear.

Set it like it is supposed to be and use it as a "Weather Post".

• If the post is wet, it's raining.
• If the post casts a shadow, the sun is shining.
• If the post does not cast a shadow and is not wet, the sky is cloudy.
• If the post is not visible, it is foggy.
• If the post is white, it is snowing.
• If the post is coated with ice, there is a frost.
• If the ice is thick, it's a heavy frost.
• If the post is bouncing, there is an earthquake.
• If the post is under water, there is a flood.
• If the post is warm, it is sunny.
• If the post is missing, there was a tornado.
• If the post is wet and swinging violently, there is a hurricane.
• If the post has white splats on it, watch out for birds.

•If the post has rub marks on it go deer hunting.

 

[j-bird]

•If the post has rub marks on it go deer hunting.

If a deer can leave rub marks on a stone post I'll be pretty damned impressed!

 

[gasman]

I like the idea of hanging the family name from it. Find someone with a CNC plasma cutter and design some sort of sign with name, date of land ownership or similar on it. Usually signs can be made pretty cheap.

 

[j-bird]

Well from all the folks I have reached out to in an effort to see if there is any significance to this post it appears the answer is "NO". It's just a stone post. The county surveyors office, county historical society and even the state historical society have really provided me much info. Every one of them pointed to KS..... So with that taken care of - I will come up with something. It's not going anywhere!!!

 

[farmhunter]

I had a piece of limestone that looked cut - so I decided to make an obelisk out of it. We cleaned out a hedgerow at camp and buried it 1/3 in the ground in clump of apples we saved. Its quite the conversation piece - we tell people its a monument to the deer gods at camp.

Yours looks like it ciould have been a hitching post, if it had a steel ring

I do see the fence posts like you describe used in the plains back in the day -

 

[T-Max]

What did you end up doing with this?

 

[Travis Aasen]

ever figure out how old it was? ie. when it was created from the limestone?