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Boundary Waters Quetico Forum :: Listening Point - General Discussion :: Depression in the ground
 
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schweady
10/12/2021 04:00PM
 
Really, really big hailstones...

 
GeneH
10/08/2021 12:40PM
 
That's just weird. My 1st though was poachers - night hunters shining deer. Seems to perfectly round for a natural feature. Watching this to see what other's here think. I would check with the DNR.
 
bobbernumber3
10/08/2021 01:10PM
 
Borrow Pit ?? Place where material was dug out to build up a low spot in the trail elsewhere/nearby.
 
billconner
10/11/2021 06:42PM
 
images of salt licks
 
jcavenagh
10/12/2021 09:03AM
 
podgeo: "Aliens"
Absolutely.
 
pswith5
10/12/2021 10:52AM
 
" this means something!"
 
Pinetree
10/12/2021 02:19PM
 
Salt lcks like that would be many years in the making and like someone said the sides would be trampled in.
I still wonder if that area was wide open before new growth forest grew in and they dug dirt to fill the trail or road somewhere?
 
bobbernumber3
10/13/2021 12:43PM
 
aholmgren: "...and confirmed them to be 'borrow pits' ..."


I'll take "Strange Sightings in BWCA" for $200, Alex.
 
BearBurrito
10/12/2021 04:15PM
 
schweady: "Really, really big hailstones...
"



LOL
 
fishonfishoff
10/11/2021 11:02AM
 
billconner: "Salt lick. Some hunter put a block of salt there. Probably had a nice place to sit not far away.



I confess. I have one on a piece of land I bought and I was there with a local and he knew. He even found the sitting place.



"
Exactly my thoughts.


FISHONFISHOFF
 
bobbernumber3
10/11/2021 11:43AM
 
fishonfishoff: "billconner: "Salt lick. Some hunter put a block of salt there. Probably had a nice place to sit not far away.




I confess. I have one on a piece of land I bought and I was there with a local and he knew. He even found the sitting place.




"
Exactly my thoughts.



FISHONFISHOFF"



Deer would have eroded the sides getting in and out of the depression. The OP depression edges are undercut...


 
northallen
10/12/2021 08:28AM
 
Small sink holes - my guess
 
Mocha
10/12/2021 10:48AM
 
possibly an old latrine?
 
carbon1
10/23/2021 05:19AM
 
Nice 870
 
mr.barley
10/24/2021 09:52AM
 
Collapsed coffin ?
 
nctry
10/09/2021 04:12PM
 
bobbernumber3: "CabinAfter: "Hmm. I don’t see many hunting blinds that needs to be dug down like this....?"



If a hunting blind, where is the excavated material? Should be a berm around the perimeter."





I would just think sink hole...
 
Pinetree
10/13/2021 06:57PM
 
billconner: "Well, obviously if government agents are in loved, it's aliens."


I think its Paul Bunyans babe the Blue Ox footprints.
 
CabinAfter
10/13/2021 08:38PM
 
aholmgren: "well that was fun - thanks all for the replies/guesses. The branches seem to have fallen in naturally. I was in the Crane Lake area trails in the Lac La Croix district.



I did email the forest service and confirmed them to be 'borrow pits' of old as "practice in more recent times, as in the past 20 years or so, is to try to mitigate the impact, take less from one spot, have them be shallower, fill in pits with rocks, boulders, and tree debris to hide them among the landscape and so that they are not a safety concern to people or animals." The round hole likely dug by hand and rectangular one done with scoops from backhoe or excavator."



Haha, that settles it. Thanks for the follow up.
 
bobbernumber3
10/09/2021 04:58PM
 
nctry: "bobbernumber3: "CabinAfter: "Hmm. I don’t see many hunting blinds that needs to be dug down like this....?"


If a hunting blind, where is the excavated material? Should be a berm around the perimeter."



I would just think sink hole..."



yep... I agree.
 
CabinAfter
10/09/2021 02:23PM
 
Hmm. I don’t see many hunting blinds that needs to be dug down like this. Have all those straight branches fallen in or were all those covering the hole? Perhaps something buried there and it settled lower than the rest. Or an old foundation. Or it’s nothing. :)

What region were you in?
 
billconner
10/09/2021 05:59PM
 
It's not where hunters sit, it's where deer and I'd guess other animals lick a block of salt, over years. It kills the vegetation and organic material decays and the slobbering creates the depression. Nothing is excavated. Google for images of deer salt lick holes.



 
Pinetree
10/10/2021 07:41PM
 
billconner: "Pinetree: " Native Americans use to dig holes like that next to rice beds, they would pick the rice than put it in holes like that to thrash it. Seen them in the Mille lacs area."



And how far away did they carry the dirt?"
They didn't they just dug the impression to work the rice. I think it was called Jigging?


Those holes are to new and were dug for some other reason as I look at them. Also looks like a somewhat new cutting so wonder if a vechile could motor up to the site before growing up.
 
billconner
10/10/2021 07:30PM
 
Pinetree: " Native Americans use to dig holes like that next to rice beds, they would pick the rice than put it in holes like that to thrash it. Seen them in the Mille lacs area."


And how far away did they carry the dirt?
 
podgeo
10/10/2021 07:11AM
 
Aliens
 
Pinetree
10/10/2021 11:10AM
 
Native Americans use to dig holes like that next to rice beds, they would pick the rice than put it in holes like that to thrash it. Seen them in the Mille lacs area.
 
aholmgren
10/08/2021 11:51AM
 
I came across these while grouse hunting near the BWCA if anyone knows what they are or can comment on them. Ground deer hunting blind? they were in the same area and each bit off a foot or snowmobile trail but I did not see a pile/mound of dirt / earth that would have been next to the depression.





 
Chieflonewatie
10/08/2021 01:27PM
 
Poachers?
 
bobbernumber3
10/09/2021 02:45PM
 
CabinAfter: "Hmm. I don’t see many hunting blinds that needs to be dug down like this....?"


If a hunting blind, where is the excavated material? Should be a berm around the perimeter.
 
billconner
10/08/2021 06:29PM
 
Salt lick. Some hunter put a block of salt there. Probably had a nice place to sit not far away.


I confess. I have one on a piece of land I bought and I was there with a local and he knew. He even found the sitting place.



 
billconner
10/13/2021 06:30PM
 
Well, obviously if government agents are invovled, it's aliens.
 
aholmgren
10/13/2021 10:52AM
 
well that was fun - thanks all for the replies/guesses. The branches seem to have fallen in naturally. I was in the Crane Lake area trails in the Lac La Croix district.


I did email the forest service and confirmed them to be 'borrow pits' of old as "practice in more recent times, as in the past 20 years or so, is to try to mitigate the impact, take less from one spot, have them be shallower, fill in pits with rocks, boulders, and tree debris to hide them among the landscape and so that they are not a safety concern to people or animals." The round hole likely dug by hand and rectangular one done with scoops from backhoe or excavator.
 
CabinAfter
10/09/2021 02:22PM
 
Salt lick leading to this hole??
 
fadersup
10/12/2021 12:41PM
 
These are definitely salt licks. For aliens.
 
BearBurrito
10/12/2021 03:44PM
 
I would think sink holes. I saw a few of these around the angleworm trail this past weekend.