West Woods Well
Shortly after purchasing the West Woods we discovered there was a 60 foot deep stone-lined well on the property. Typically it contains 20 feet of water. This dangerous hazard is now enclosed by an orange fence. Nevertheless, use caution when approaching it.
The discovery of a well was unexpected. Old maps show no indication of a homestead in this area. And we’ve never found a stone foundation as you’d expect to find for a log cabin. Furthermore, nearby there are additional signs of digging. All together this seemed rather curious at first.
Local lore tells the story that the West Woods Well was created by Union troops during the Civil War. Allegedly, they were stationed there because the location provided a high vantage point overlooking the Potomac River and the C&O Canal. This all makes sense. Although we have nothing to prove it.
Pieces of the Puzzle
• Location: An ideal place to overlook the Potomac River. The spot is hidden behind a ridge hundreds of feet above the dividing line between North and South. And nearby promontories are the highest around. By the way, we can’t see the River today, but the hills were clearcut during the 19th Century.
• Meticulous construction: It took a lot of manpower to construct this well. It’s lined with cut sandstone (probably from the nearby Seneca Quarry). The stones are carefully formed to rounded shapes.
• Rifle pits: At the top of the ridge are two excavations that match the description of shallow dugouts made during the Civil War and called rifle pits. A third rifle pit is a short distance downhill beyond the ridge.
• Large collapsed excavation: A very large unidentified excavation lies nearby. Technically it is on County land – just beyond the modern day property line. Some sort of large hole was here that collapsed. Could it have been a latrine perhaps? In any case, we should consider the ground to be unstable and dangerous. We don’t know how deep the hole is, so do not go close. The Chapter has enclosed this hazard with an orange fence.
Mine Shaft or Drinking Well?
Initially we called this site the “West Woods Shaft” because we wanted to keep open the possibility it was a mine shaft. But later an expert explained that wells are stone-lined and mine shafts are wood lined. Mines are expected to be mined-out and abandoned. So mine shafts don’t need to be meticulously constructed. Combining that information with the discovery of rife pits leads to the conclusion that what we have is a well, probably used to provide water for troops stationed here. Furthermore.we examined the dump pile and found no trace of ore-bearing rock. Typically a mine’s dump pile would have low quality ore that was discarded.
Archaeology Digs
The committee has organized 5 field trips to explore this site. In summary, we discovered a dense concentration of metal objects, some identifiable and some not. There is an obvious rectangular depression about 50 feet north of the well. It’s significance is undetermined. We found a concentration of nails scattered between the well and the depression. Curiously, some nails are square and some nails are round. The manufacture of round nails began around 1880.
The most unexplained thing we discovered are oddly shaped pieces of metal we call “Unknown Metal Objects”. Over the years we’ve found 6 of them. Some are badly rusted. But one of them is in better condition (N50E5_2014).It looks like an oval merged with a rectangle. The metal is magnetic. So, it’s either iron or steel.
