circular pits

[HIPOCKETS]

I saw several circular pits, the size ranged from 15 to 20 feet in diameter to one very large pit on the trail between Harpers Ferry and Boiling springs. Any ideas on their purpose?

[Rockhound]

Alien landing sites

[Rocket Jones]

Don't dig too deep, you'll disturb the bones.

[Deadeye]

You didn't give any details (a hole is not just a hole, you know:rolleyes:)

Old? Stone-lined? Could be charcoal pits, otherwise I'd go with the aliens.

[Blissful]

That was a quarry area for mining and old furnaces.

[warraghiyagey]

That was a quarry area for mining and old furnaces.
Well that's just entirely implausible. . . I'm going with alien landing. . .

[shelterbuilder]

If you were in an area where there had been a railroad operating 150 years ago, they could have been the remains of some old roundhouses (there's one of these near the Rausch Gap Shelter in Pa.). If they were more of a clearing and less of an actual pit, they might have been the remains of old charcoal hearths (clearings in the woods where they used to turn wood into charcoal for the iron industry 150 years ago - these dot the mountains in Pa.).

Otherwise, alien landing pads seems as plausible as any other explanation!:eek: (seems EVERYONE wants to hike the trail these days)

[Toolshed]

If they are big circular pits, I am willing to bet they were old charcoal pits - Where wood was buried and burned slowly to create charcoal for the blast furnaces.
Most of the turntables/roundhouses i've seen in Northern PA are all directly on the old shay lines at the top of the climb or at the very bottom of the climb, and aren't much deeper than the rail-line itself.

[Don H]

More info on the charcoal industry.

http://www.nps.gov/archive/cato/culthist/char-iron.htm

[middle to middle]

Just North of Harpes Ferry there are pits overlooking the river which were suposed to be dug and used by solgers during Revolutionary War to observe the enemy in Harpers Ferry. I have not ben there in a long time.

[Egads]

Landing pads for Balloon boy

[Darwin again]

Whatever you do, don't try to shave them.

[totally Boagus]

charcoal making, as shown in the link was done on a flat spot. When I passed these neatly dug areas a few years ago, my first thought was that they were pits where clay was dug for local pottery's

[Tuckahoe]

There are in a number of areas ringing Harpers Ferry the remains of rifle pits and artillery positions from the Civil War. Some dug for example, during the September 1862 Sharpsburg Campaign.

[XCskiNYC]

If you were in an area where there had been a railroad operating 150 years ago, they could have been the remains of some old roundhouses (there's one of these near the Rausch Gap Shelter in Pa.). If they were more of a clearing and less of an actual pit, they might have been the remains of old charcoal hearths (clearings in the woods where they used to turn wood into charcoal for the iron industry 150 years ago - these dot the mountains in Pa.).

Otherwise, alien landing pads seems as plausible as any other explanation!:eek: (seems EVERYONE wants to hike the trail these days)

On the AT approaching the center of Fahenstock SP there's a section south of Rte 301 that was a charcoal production area in the 19th Century. This may explain why sections of the trail here run along stone causeways and in other areas the trail is hewn from rock faces. I'm thinking these may have been cartways or the road beds for narrow-gauge railroads.

The charcoal was brought from here to Cold Spring and then ferried across the Hudson to foundries at West Point where it was used in the manufacture of bullets and shells to shoot at the CSA in the Civil War.

[Old Grouse]

On the AT approaching the center of Fahenstock SP there's a section south of Rte 301 that was a charcoal production area in the 19th Century. This may explain why sections of the trail here run along stone causeways and in other areas the trail is hewn from rock faces. I'm thinking these may have been cartways or the road beds for narrow-gauge railroads.

The charcoal was brought from here to Cold Spring and then ferried across the Hudson to foundries at West Point where it was used in the manufacture of bullets and shells to shoot at the CSA in the Civil War.

Actually, Cold Spring itself was the home of the factory where Parrott Rifles (Civil War cannons) were made.

[The Snowman]

lime kilms are another possability

[saimyoji]

they are in fact Sasquatch catholes. i don't recommend sleeping in one.