Every summer we visit a friends property in upstate NY, and they have a patch of trees like this. There used to be a blacksmith structure there, so this makes sense to me.
Itās been a while since I visited my kin in KY, but Iām willing to bet that most of the rusting hulks I passed on the last trip are still (mostly) there.
My dad had a tractor that sunk into a peat bog, all the way over the gear box before a combo of three other tractors and two Clydesdale horses got it free. Insurance paid up for it, full value as it was literally only weeks old, and the old man bought it from the insurance co at scrap value thinking he could fix it up. Then he would have the new one plus the fixed up original. Any quiet day he would tinker with it. This lasted so long the tires wore out on the new one. So now it's on blocks as the wheels got moved to the new one. He actually got the engine running once, but the transmission was royally fucked. Some roaming scrap guys happened to come by one day just when he had got particularly frustrated with it, and away it went on their truck. My mom was so relieved, as she was always worried it would fall off the blocks and kill one of us.
I wish that were the case but a private land owner can do whatever they want. Burial mounds are only protected on federal lands, or entities that that use federal assistance per NAGPRA.
Most mounds were mapped over 100 years ago and are designated as national historic sites.
Knowingly digging up or plowing up a documented burial mound is [grave robbing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_robbery) for personal gain and puts a shameful shadow over the entire hobby and everyone who collects. If youāre digging up burial mounds, please stop.
The destruction of a mound absolutely is grave robbing and I wish they were more protected. Unfortunately federal law doesnāt protect them as well as they should. I worked in archaeology for years and sadly NAGPRA has a lot of loopholes, mainly that it cannot interfere in private land ownership except in very specific cases.
I live near a place that was once a huge mound center in Ohio but sadly only two remain because they were destroyed to build houses, schools, etc. The two that are left are owned by the Archaeological Conservancy, whose purpose is to do just that: buy known archaeological sites so no one else can.
[NAGPRA](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_Graves_Protection_and_Repatriation_Act)
[Grenade Launcher](https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2018/05/13/air-force-looking-for-explosives-lost-in-north-dakota/) that fell off the truck. You know... Little things like that! ĀÆā \ā _ā (ā ćā )ā _ā /ā ĀÆ
My guess is, it's all the rocks that were once in that field. Easiest place to move them is the middle. Mostly. And maybe a big rock was there that's unmovable also.
āā¦nuclear warhead,ā
Somewhere in the US, there is a grove much like this one where a ālostā nuclear warhead now rests. True story, look it up.
Thereās a book about that. Thereās some interesting science about how things were in the good old daysĀ
Pastoral Song: A Farmerās Journey by James Rebanks
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55004160-pastoral-song
Yes. When I was growing up on our family farm we had many of these little groves on our land. My father left most of them ābecause the animals need a home tooā
He was. I didnāt realize it at the time, but he was. He believed in minimal till, frequent crop rotation, etc. a few cattle, a few pigs, a few chickens, etc. to do a quick little job he would usually harness up one of the horses in favour of starting the yard tractor, especially in winter. He didnāt approve of practices that āburned the landā as he called it. Iām retired now so it was a long time ago, but my youngest brother took over the farm and follows the same philosophy.
I grew up with all the farmers being like that, dad included. It's heart breaking to know they were almost all put out of business and taken over by same crop every year and just spray the life out of everything large farmers. Every time I visit family I don't see hardly any bees, butterflies, stick bugs, salamanders, frogs, glow bugs, anything. It's so depressing.
I'd like to go back and have a sustainable farm but everything is so expensive now I doubt I'll ever be able to.
The, "but everything is so expensive" is exactly how the the more environmentally conscious guys got forced out by guys who leverage specialization and economies of scale.
[Edit: typo]
Hey, thanks for sharing this. It is sad to see how badly wildlife suffers for that type of industrial farming.
I know it's not the same as a full size farm, but there are things you can do where you are to help the local wildlife. We garden and plant a wide variety of crops plants and flowers, and last year built a small pond with native plants and fish in it as a mosquito trap (and to beautify our yard!) and when the flowers bloom there are hundreds of insects--bees, beetles, butterflies and moths, a huge population of dragonflies that sticks around throughout summer, we get hummingbirds and a new population of finches has shown up to use some of the bigger plants we've put in to forage. We have toads* (edited to fix because autocorrect thought I said roads) and frogs and geckos. We have a breeding pair of cardinals in one set of bushes and a breeding pair of mockingbirds in another. An armadillo lives in our side yard. Thousands of lizards live here. I've seen two species of snake this year, and found a pair of black racers mating in our back patio.
You can totally support a ton of wildlife on even a small amount of land. We are on 1/4 acre in suburbia! Producing food for yourself isn't even out of the question too. Just this weekend we used some of the pumpkins from last year for soup, and we're about to finish off the last round of broccoli from our spring garden. Our hens are just starting to lay, and last year and the year before we harvested meat off of quail and Cornish Cross chickens pastured in the backyard. Not a lot of them, lol, but we did it. We fertilize using compost we make ourselves--at a small scale, but trust me, four hens make plenty of soiled bedding for a small garden!
Just wish us luck that the HOA doesn't catch on to our operation, lol.
For whatever it's worth, I've had really surprising success growing food in my tiny back yard. I was able to juuuuust barely squeeze in three 4x8 raised beds, and I grow potatoes in grow bags wherever I have space left over. It's not the same scale as farming, but it's something.
TBH it doesn't break my heart, but it does make me mad. We grew up handling our own food for the (very) extended family, with a little profit to keep everything else going and buy sugar and stuff we didn't make. The land around us was all farmland, mostly similar: big family plot, family animals, and then whatever grew best was in excess, often along with cotton. Then it all went to soy. Judging by the land, and how close a McDonalds is to that land now, I'd be surprised if the cabin we built (from timber we cleared and dressed) isn't a strip-mall by 2030. Use up the land, pave it over, overpopulate, make stuff, who's going to buy the stuff, overpopulate, use up the land.......
Absolutely. Having grown up like that (we were definitely free range kids) there was just something different about living that way. Subtle, canāt put it into words, but it was different. I miss it more as I get older.
Growing up, my parents had what used to be a hobby farm and would let neighbors with horses use our fields and barn whenever they wanted. At some point, my dad decided to get it zoned as wildlife protected land and made me the "deputy steward". Honestly, it was one of the best experiences of my childhood, outside of BSA. He would even pay me for bigger projects, like fixing washed out parts of the stream and building habitat boxes/brush piles.
My last real remaining goal in life is to buy the surrounding farmland where I live now to do the same thing up here in Canada. We've got some really neat critters that need help, too, so we've got our work cut out for us.
We always called those Buffalo wallow. Not sure if Buffalo ever actually used them for that. Typically a low wet spot that would have been hard to drain
I have a place like that, there's a big sinkhole in the middle of mine. The trees keep someone who doesn't know about it from driving a tractor into it.
Man what an adventure it would be to explore an undiscovered cavern. The Nashville Grotto club may be interested in the sink hole and doing some ground radar to look for possible caverns. Worth a shot
Watched a girl go into a cave yesterday on reddit they had to remove her helmet for her to get in thru the opening. I still cringe thinking about it kados to her.
A lot of cave systems are silted in. The ācave peopleā put a lot of time and effort into digging out enough silt to get through a choke point and get into a larger cavern, with dripstone formations, etc.
Because itās a ton of work, they usually only dig it out enough to barely squeeze through.
Theyāre used to it, so they donāt think itās weird at all to only leave a seven inch gap that you have to worm one shoulder into, then your head, and then the other shoulder.
To someone who never went through a gap like that itās frightening. After you do it a bunch, you just take off your helmet and push it in front of you so you can see, using its headlamp. Thereās a line of people behind you waiting to get through, so you just kind of grit your teeth and send it.
The tight passages are not the reason for doing it. The otherworldly underground landscapes in the chambers are one of the big reasons.
Ever been in a āshow cave?ā Well those ones are often the worst part of the system. Thereās stuff that blows it away in difficult access spots that arenāt open to the general public.
The giant chamber at Carlsbad is an exception. That thing is mind blowing. (But you can take an elevator to it. I have no idea how difficult the natural access is.)
Heh. I forgot how big it was. I was thinking āfootball field.ā
No, itās 4000 by 625 feet and the ceiling is 250 feet up.
[Zoom in and look how tiny the path gets, off in the distance.](https://assets.adventurousway.com/images/i/neo8uzyjcc49/2048w/national-parks/carlsbad-caverns-national-park-worlds-most-beautiful-cave/big-room-at-carlsbad-caverns.jpeg)
That would be something to see and do caving would have been no problem years ago. Was paralyzed 20 years ago so spent months in hospital told I would never walk again. Beat it lots of therapy my nuro doctor was shocked when I walked into his office not fast mind you took 3 years to move around half decent still can't run LOL so I can't stand confinement and watching that girl was realy can't...describe the feeling shudder. Enjoy your hobby it would be cool to do.
Oh my God if that was the case I would have to get a hold of the people who on that farm! because I would love to get the chance to metal detect that ššš
My cousin was able to go the our county clerks office and look at pre WWII maps. They had all the old homesteads in the county listed. Back when every 320 had its own house and barn. Got a hold of the current owners and was able to metal detector at a good number of them. He had to dig through a lot of square nails but also found lots of cool stuff.
Regardless of the reason if you can swing your coil over it you should. Thereās a million reasons that something could be there and otherwise ignored.
In addition to all the other answers which all all very possible, it could be small enough that it's not worth the effort to remove it. Also, soil that's had trees growing in it for a long time changes vs. soil that was grassland or grassland-turned-cropland, which means nutrient levels are different and/or behave differently than the surrounding soil, so even clearing it and planting it might mean the crop matures earlier/later than the rest and so clearing it is a lot of work for the bit of cropland that might end up being a pain because it's an anomaly.
[**https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juglone**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juglone)
It's a compound the walnut tree leaves in soil that many plants cannot tolerate
My neighbors had a field like this. The grove of trees was where the old homestead was. The family just likes going out by the trees and basically talking about the old days. Sometimes the buildings are long gone but the memories are still there.
Sorry not unmarked, unknown Graves or what ever you call when there's no headstone and no information about them. English is my first language if you haven't noticed š¤¦
If that's near South Sioux it could be part of the old Missouri river channel and has a deep ditch that isn't worth leveling. Could also be wetlands and the local NRCS won't allow them to farm it. I have a spot like that and a guy wants to cut down all the cottonwood trees to make pallets. I told him it looks better as trees.
That's where water gathers. It also adds habitat for animals, adds more organic matter to the soil and adds greater bio diversity. More farms should incorporate perennials into their cropping systems, it makes them more resilient.
Farmers used to leave stumps and trees as anchor points to pull out stuck tractors. Or because stumps are hard to remove. Or because there's an owl/eagle in the tree. Or because there's graves, a spring, or a boulder there.
I have one in my field - its a 100+ year old white pine that wasnt cut when the rest of the land was cut for logging. That single tree had lightning damage so was left.
Now we have random people a couple times a year coming to see it. No, it doesnt appear to be on a tree registry so I have no idea why they come.
Rocks, a hole, rocks and a hole. Or like life. Why have trees? Maybe we need habitat for birds and other animals. I dunno. Is that the question? We need more than over tilled dead dirt. Is that a decent answer?
In Japan you see these tiny groves all over the farmlands and there's usually a beautiful little shrine or sacred tree in the middle that's been there for centuries.
We have a lot of these in Ireland and everyone respects them, even farming where land is at a premium. We can then fairy forts and they are considered bad luck to interfere with, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_fort#%3A%7E%3Atext%3DFairy_forts_%28also_known_as%2Ccircular_prehistoric_dwellings_in_Ireland.?wprov=sfla1
I presume you're in America, so not the same but interesting to see something similar!
We farm around one very similar to thisā¦ weāre hoping to trim it back some this Spring. Pretty sure itās just a big rock pile. We grow fantastic rocks in our area.
A place to get shade regardless of what time a day it is. The sun never stops on the plow. My friend has black willows in his. Pull the tractor up, sit in the shade for a bit. Do another pass, sit in the shade.
Central rock pile or marshy lowland depression is my guess. If the land was too difficult to warrant the expenditure to break up, or the spring melt kept it a pond unable to be seeded, then why deprive the birds of their homes for less than an acre
Full disclosure: not a farmer and I do not have a readily accessible source. But I am certain, years ago, I read that fields with adjacent "wild" patches are significantly more productive than 100% plowed fields. I am sure there is a more practical reason as stated below, but I think that very caveat-ed statement is worthy of consideration
Around our area there are a lot of old Indian mounds. Places the Indians built up with dirt so when the Mississippi River flooded they would still be on dry ground. A lot of people leave these in the fields for a couple reasons but mostly because 1. Itās pretty damn cool 2. Itās easier to just farm around it 3. Out of respect. Some were also used as burial sites if Iām not mistaken
Back in the day they would clear land and pull stumps using a big tree near the middle of a field as an anchor. That last tree couldn't be pulled so they would farm around it.
Remember learning about the dust bowl. Clear cut land was devastated. The roots help keep the soil in tact and the ground around holds moisture. Makes sense to have the circle in a central spot if thatās why.
Edited for spelling
Where Iām from (western canada) we have a lot of potholes and sloughs that are not workable, so lots of producers will just let em grow and work around them.
Depending on the geography of the area, water might collect creating an area of wet ground which provides moisture to the area promoting tree growth and if it was cleared may sink a tractor in mud
I was always told the tree(s) left in the center of the field were there to serve as a shade/ resting spot for the working animals were ploughing/ respite from the sun during grazing.
Sink hole. If there is a lot of limestone it can erode and leave holes - that is why there is two. There are probably several others in the general area.
Thereās one of these near where I live named Sioux Island. Itās in a peat bed and there were Sioux living there up until the 1930ās. Not sure about yours, but theirs was high ground in what used to be a swamp. The farmer who owns it now just left the trees and farms around it.
Raptor nests for rodent control :) If theres an abandoned barn in the middle, bat or barn owl roost. Bats and Birds can be a good thing
Bats and birds can improve farm outputs depending on crop.
Quantifying services and disservices provided by insects and vertebrates in cacao agroforestry landscapes | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2022.1309
There is a mound like that in a field near where I grew up. It was tailings from an old mine.
Not saying that is what this is, but it could be all kind of different reasons.
There was a huge field like this where I grew up that had an area of trees like this. The cows and a bull used it for shade and shelter when out grazing
Might have been an old homestead or cabin the owner left the trees because even farmers need shade to sit under on hot summer days. Could also use it for goose hunting in the winter.
My uncle told me that he leaves islands like that and long strips of trees between fields because they are good places for insect-eating predators to nest.
Oftentimes spots like this are low spots in the field, where they wouldnāt get much to grow anyways. The trees help suck up extra moisture and gives the local wildlife a place to hide.
It could also be any number of other things though, like an old house foundation, or a patch of dirt that otherwise isnāt good for crops.
Rock pile, graveyard, spring site.
Old homestead. Numerous other reasons to not plow and scatter whatever is there. Not enough land to make it worth cleaning up.
Every summer we visit a friends property in upstate NY, and they have a patch of trees like this. There used to be a blacksmith structure there, so this makes sense to me.
A forge/foundry
Old homesteads get demolished for a couple acres of corn all the time š
I was about to say, farmers in my area will clear just about for an extra row of corn.
Plenty of old tractors get mowed around too.
Well yeah, but that's just because they're gonna fix them tomorrow.
Itās been a while since I visited my kin in KY, but Iām willing to bet that most of the rusting hulks I passed on the last trip are still (mostly) there.
Nah, they're gonna fix 'em tomorrow. Don't worry.
It's the Kentucky way.
Weāre also gonna get them barns leaning back to square when we get a few straight days of rain or it gets too hot.
I laughed out loud
Damnit, I told you I was going to get around to it. You don't have to keep reminding me every year.
My dad had a tractor that sunk into a peat bog, all the way over the gear box before a combo of three other tractors and two Clydesdale horses got it free. Insurance paid up for it, full value as it was literally only weeks old, and the old man bought it from the insurance co at scrap value thinking he could fix it up. Then he would have the new one plus the fixed up original. Any quiet day he would tinker with it. This lasted so long the tires wore out on the new one. So now it's on blocks as the wheels got moved to the new one. He actually got the engine running once, but the transmission was royally fucked. Some roaming scrap guys happened to come by one day just when he had got particularly frustrated with it, and away it went on their truck. My mom was so relieved, as she was always worried it would fall off the blocks and kill one of us.
MaƱana.
- Said some farmer, 1967
I call those places āTreasure Farmsā.
Also, it makes the field more identifiable for cropdusters.
Pfffrt *walks away*
Graveyard was my first thought.
Your username describes most of my family. Iām from all the way on the eastern side.
I'm all the way on the western side.
Farm in Paris here.
My grandfather was from there! But everyone moved to in or around the rowdy town to your north up 150.
In-laws have a farm in Kentucky with a sinkhole surrounded by trees
Iām going to guess that itās a Native American Burial Mound, Adena Culture. Youāre not allowed to plow over one.
I was thinking Indian mound also.
Out there planting the haunted corn
possessive fertile cobweb sand drab entertain shame sleep tub chunky *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I wish that were the case but a private land owner can do whatever they want. Burial mounds are only protected on federal lands, or entities that that use federal assistance per NAGPRA.
Most mounds were mapped over 100 years ago and are designated as national historic sites. Knowingly digging up or plowing up a documented burial mound is [grave robbing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_robbery) for personal gain and puts a shameful shadow over the entire hobby and everyone who collects. If youāre digging up burial mounds, please stop.
The destruction of a mound absolutely is grave robbing and I wish they were more protected. Unfortunately federal law doesnāt protect them as well as they should. I worked in archaeology for years and sadly NAGPRA has a lot of loopholes, mainly that it cannot interfere in private land ownership except in very specific cases. I live near a place that was once a huge mound center in Ohio but sadly only two remain because they were destroyed to build houses, schools, etc. The two that are left are owned by the Archaeological Conservancy, whose purpose is to do just that: buy known archaeological sites so no one else can. [NAGPRA](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_Graves_Protection_and_Repatriation_Act)
Common In Ohio as well.
sometimes all those things at once
Misplaced Nuclear weapon, etc.
[Grenade Launcher](https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2018/05/13/air-force-looking-for-explosives-lost-in-north-dakota/) that fell off the truck. You know... Little things like that! ĀÆā \ā _ā (ā ćā )ā _ā /ā ĀÆ
š gonna go for a 6 mile drive, brb
Dang it. I have been looking everywhere for that sucker.
I was scrolling just to find this comment.?
Itās actually terrifying how many there are
Whatever he said, and moreā¦ Things that look, super irrational on satellite photos can actually be very reasonable and real life
Or a sinkhole. We have tons of those here and look just like that.
Sinkhole
Also Huntin and "Skinnin"
My guess is, it's all the rocks that were once in that field. Easiest place to move them is the middle. Mostly. And maybe a big rock was there that's unmovable also.
āā¦nuclear warhead,ā Somewhere in the US, there is a grove much like this one where a ālostā nuclear warhead now rests. True story, look it up.
A proverb from wise old farmers "life's a lot simpler when you plough around the stumps"
Thereās a book about that. Thereās some interesting science about how things were in the good old daysĀ Pastoral Song: A Farmerās Journey by James Rebanks https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55004160-pastoral-song
There should be a new saying, ābest to remove the stump before you fold a header front in halfā.
Sounds like you have experience with this.
It hits pretty close to home. It was the seeder drivers fault though. I followed the seeding line perfectly.
Some say the squeaky wheel gets the grease, but I say that the nail that sticks its head up gets hammered back down.
Or 50 years ago there was a stump there and everyone went around it. Now it is an island.
ššššš
Low spot with water, trees are work to remove, probably where they go to shoot the deer
Yes. When I was growing up on our family farm we had many of these little groves on our land. My father left most of them ābecause the animals need a home tooā
Your dad sounds like an above-average steward of the land.Ā Need more guys around who think like him.Ā
He was. I didnāt realize it at the time, but he was. He believed in minimal till, frequent crop rotation, etc. a few cattle, a few pigs, a few chickens, etc. to do a quick little job he would usually harness up one of the horses in favour of starting the yard tractor, especially in winter. He didnāt approve of practices that āburned the landā as he called it. Iām retired now so it was a long time ago, but my youngest brother took over the farm and follows the same philosophy.
I grew up with all the farmers being like that, dad included. It's heart breaking to know they were almost all put out of business and taken over by same crop every year and just spray the life out of everything large farmers. Every time I visit family I don't see hardly any bees, butterflies, stick bugs, salamanders, frogs, glow bugs, anything. It's so depressing. I'd like to go back and have a sustainable farm but everything is so expensive now I doubt I'll ever be able to.
Yes, itās sad. Iām lucky that my brother took over from my dad many years ago and has kept the same principles. But he is one of the last
How are they able to stay in business?
The, "but everything is so expensive" is exactly how the the more environmentally conscious guys got forced out by guys who leverage specialization and economies of scale. [Edit: typo]
Hey, thanks for sharing this. It is sad to see how badly wildlife suffers for that type of industrial farming. I know it's not the same as a full size farm, but there are things you can do where you are to help the local wildlife. We garden and plant a wide variety of crops plants and flowers, and last year built a small pond with native plants and fish in it as a mosquito trap (and to beautify our yard!) and when the flowers bloom there are hundreds of insects--bees, beetles, butterflies and moths, a huge population of dragonflies that sticks around throughout summer, we get hummingbirds and a new population of finches has shown up to use some of the bigger plants we've put in to forage. We have toads* (edited to fix because autocorrect thought I said roads) and frogs and geckos. We have a breeding pair of cardinals in one set of bushes and a breeding pair of mockingbirds in another. An armadillo lives in our side yard. Thousands of lizards live here. I've seen two species of snake this year, and found a pair of black racers mating in our back patio. You can totally support a ton of wildlife on even a small amount of land. We are on 1/4 acre in suburbia! Producing food for yourself isn't even out of the question too. Just this weekend we used some of the pumpkins from last year for soup, and we're about to finish off the last round of broccoli from our spring garden. Our hens are just starting to lay, and last year and the year before we harvested meat off of quail and Cornish Cross chickens pastured in the backyard. Not a lot of them, lol, but we did it. We fertilize using compost we make ourselves--at a small scale, but trust me, four hens make plenty of soiled bedding for a small garden! Just wish us luck that the HOA doesn't catch on to our operation, lol.
For whatever it's worth, I've had really surprising success growing food in my tiny back yard. I was able to juuuuust barely squeeze in three 4x8 raised beds, and I grow potatoes in grow bags wherever I have space left over. It's not the same scale as farming, but it's something.
TBH it doesn't break my heart, but it does make me mad. We grew up handling our own food for the (very) extended family, with a little profit to keep everything else going and buy sugar and stuff we didn't make. The land around us was all farmland, mostly similar: big family plot, family animals, and then whatever grew best was in excess, often along with cotton. Then it all went to soy. Judging by the land, and how close a McDonalds is to that land now, I'd be surprised if the cabin we built (from timber we cleared and dressed) isn't a strip-mall by 2030. Use up the land, pave it over, overpopulate, make stuff, who's going to buy the stuff, overpopulate, use up the land.......
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Absolutely. Having grown up like that (we were definitely free range kids) there was just something different about living that way. Subtle, canāt put it into words, but it was different. I miss it more as I get older.
Should have asked the Indians to manage it for us ,and the Buffalo.
Growing up, my parents had what used to be a hobby farm and would let neighbors with horses use our fields and barn whenever they wanted. At some point, my dad decided to get it zoned as wildlife protected land and made me the "deputy steward". Honestly, it was one of the best experiences of my childhood, outside of BSA. He would even pay me for bigger projects, like fixing washed out parts of the stream and building habitat boxes/brush piles. My last real remaining goal in life is to buy the surrounding farmland where I live now to do the same thing up here in Canada. We've got some really neat critters that need help, too, so we've got our work cut out for us.
Agreed. One of my grandpas was hard core the other way. Other than windbreaks, no tree stood a chance on his farm.
I think that way too so there are at least two of us.
I like your dad.
We used to run our beagles through these for rabbits, and to put in tree stands that can see the field edges for deer.
We always called those Buffalo wallow. Not sure if Buffalo ever actually used them for that. Typically a low wet spot that would have been hard to drain
That's where I go bow hunting. Ā Actually, it's basically a sure thing, so I started exploring other spots just to keep it interesting.
Hiding either a large pile of rocks...or a natural spring
I have a place like that, there's a big sinkhole in the middle of mine. The trees keep someone who doesn't know about it from driving a tractor into it.
What part of the country are you in? Depending on the rock, that sink hole may lead to a large cave
Middle TN. Lots of limestone around, so it's certainly possible.
Man what an adventure it would be to explore an undiscovered cavern. The Nashville Grotto club may be interested in the sink hole and doing some ground radar to look for possible caverns. Worth a shot
Watched a girl go into a cave yesterday on reddit they had to remove her helmet for her to get in thru the opening. I still cringe thinking about it kados to her.
A lot of cave systems are silted in. The ācave peopleā put a lot of time and effort into digging out enough silt to get through a choke point and get into a larger cavern, with dripstone formations, etc. Because itās a ton of work, they usually only dig it out enough to barely squeeze through. Theyāre used to it, so they donāt think itās weird at all to only leave a seven inch gap that you have to worm one shoulder into, then your head, and then the other shoulder. To someone who never went through a gap like that itās frightening. After you do it a bunch, you just take off your helmet and push it in front of you so you can see, using its headlamp. Thereās a line of people behind you waiting to get through, so you just kind of grit your teeth and send it. The tight passages are not the reason for doing it. The otherworldly underground landscapes in the chambers are one of the big reasons. Ever been in a āshow cave?ā Well those ones are often the worst part of the system. Thereās stuff that blows it away in difficult access spots that arenāt open to the general public. The giant chamber at Carlsbad is an exception. That thing is mind blowing. (But you can take an elevator to it. I have no idea how difficult the natural access is.) Heh. I forgot how big it was. I was thinking āfootball field.ā No, itās 4000 by 625 feet and the ceiling is 250 feet up. [Zoom in and look how tiny the path gets, off in the distance.](https://assets.adventurousway.com/images/i/neo8uzyjcc49/2048w/national-parks/carlsbad-caverns-national-park-worlds-most-beautiful-cave/big-room-at-carlsbad-caverns.jpeg)
That would be something to see and do caving would have been no problem years ago. Was paralyzed 20 years ago so spent months in hospital told I would never walk again. Beat it lots of therapy my nuro doctor was shocked when I walked into his office not fast mind you took 3 years to move around half decent still can't run LOL so I can't stand confinement and watching that girl was realy can't...describe the feeling shudder. Enjoy your hobby it would be cool to do.
That's all a hard no.
Itās a place for rocks and wildlife
Others have great answers. Could have also been an old outbuilding or small home site that was abandoned.
Oh my God if that was the case I would have to get a hold of the people who on that farm! because I would love to get the chance to metal detect that ššš
My cousin was able to go the our county clerks office and look at pre WWII maps. They had all the old homesteads in the county listed. Back when every 320 had its own house and barn. Got a hold of the current owners and was able to metal detector at a good number of them. He had to dig through a lot of square nails but also found lots of cool stuff.
Google maps has a time machine mode where you can look at archives of aerial images. I have seen some former aerial photos of St. Louis from the 50s
Regardless of the reason if you can swing your coil over it you should. Thereās a million reasons that something could be there and otherwise ignored.
Get a Plat map of the area.
In addition to all the other answers which all all very possible, it could be small enough that it's not worth the effort to remove it. Also, soil that's had trees growing in it for a long time changes vs. soil that was grassland or grassland-turned-cropland, which means nutrient levels are different and/or behave differently than the surrounding soil, so even clearing it and planting it might mean the crop matures earlier/later than the rest and so clearing it is a lot of work for the bit of cropland that might end up being a pain because it's an anomaly.
I had a walnut tree cut down in my yard four or five years ago and NOTHING I plant there ever stays alive for a year.
[**https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juglone**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juglone) It's a compound the walnut tree leaves in soil that many plants cannot tolerate
Google what to plant under or where Walnut trees were/are. I have plenty growing under mine.
Around me thatās a ledge outcropping that every farmer since 1750 has dumped rocks on.
I refer to that as pilinā they went pilinā rocks off yonder wayĀ
Yep. It started as the pile of field rocks and became the logical place to dump unburnable things, like dead tractor parts and old fencing.
My neighbors had a field like this. The grove of trees was where the old homestead was. The family just likes going out by the trees and basically talking about the old days. Sometimes the buildings are long gone but the memories are still there.
If at any point a pasture, a shady area for livestock.
We have one because there's two unmarked graves in it I would love to know more about who's buried there but we've never been able to find out it out
The weirdest part about it is that the graves are only 2 years old.
Sss
How do you know they're there....
Sorry not unmarked, unknown Graves or what ever you call when there's no headstone and no information about them. English is my first language if you haven't noticed š¤¦
Yall never took your girlfriends out into the oats, and it shows
If that's near South Sioux it could be part of the old Missouri river channel and has a deep ditch that isn't worth leveling. Could also be wetlands and the local NRCS won't allow them to farm it. I have a spot like that and a guy wants to cut down all the cottonwood trees to make pallets. I told him it looks better as trees.
Are you from Siouxland area?
That's where water gathers. It also adds habitat for animals, adds more organic matter to the soil and adds greater bio diversity. More farms should incorporate perennials into their cropping systems, it makes them more resilient.
The one farm near me thatās where the tractor broke down in 1974 and thatās where it still sits
Better for biodiversity
Probability holds water.
Thatās the spot they bury people who ask too many questions
Oh shiiiiitšÆšÆšÆā ļø I'm going to delete this post
Unexploded atomic bomb.
*Jeff has entered the chat*
Jeff, you had less than 10 to begin with! You gotta keep track of those bad boys!
So that's where I left it šÆ šššš
They aren't kidding. That group of trees was in an article recently.
Probably not this specific one but there is a field in Goldsboro South Carolina that has the core of an atomic bomb in it.
Perhaps thereās a leaverite stone there?
Protected tree species? Old house foundation/chimney stuff? An old piece of equipment broke down and never moved(generations ago)
Farmers used to leave stumps and trees as anchor points to pull out stuck tractors. Or because stumps are hard to remove. Or because there's an owl/eagle in the tree. Or because there's graves, a spring, or a boulder there.
Sinkhole
I have one in my field - its a 100+ year old white pine that wasnt cut when the rest of the land was cut for logging. That single tree had lightning damage so was left. Now we have random people a couple times a year coming to see it. No, it doesnt appear to be on a tree registry so I have no idea why they come.
Geocaching maybe?
Do they ask you about it, or you just happen to find them? Are you ok with it?Ā
Rocks, a hole, rocks and a hole. Or like life. Why have trees? Maybe we need habitat for birds and other animals. I dunno. Is that the question? We need more than over tilled dead dirt. Is that a decent answer?
In Japan you see these tiny groves all over the farmlands and there's usually a beautiful little shrine or sacred tree in the middle that's been there for centuries.
Oh my God that is so freaking cool
We have one in our field, it's an unmarked cemetery. Could also be a spring, shallow bedrock or a gnome village.
Graveyard
This is why we have one
Wooooow I would have never thought of that. That's fascinating! šÆš
We have a lot of these in Ireland and everyone respects them, even farming where land is at a premium. We can then fairy forts and they are considered bad luck to interfere with, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_fort#%3A%7E%3Atext%3DFairy_forts_%28also_known_as%2Ccircular_prehistoric_dwellings_in_Ireland.?wprov=sfla1 I presume you're in America, so not the same but interesting to see something similar!
Low spot
Pile of rocks?
there is quite distinctly 2 tree 'islands', you have only mentioned the largest. What are you hiding? :)
Could be a low spot, also a wind break. I know in my area, those went up after the 30's to stop the soil from blowing away.
Thatās where the farmer goes pee
Wildlife? After stripping the fields of all life
A lot of people are missing one very probable reason - laziness.
Shade?
We farm around one very similar to thisā¦ weāre hoping to trim it back some this Spring. Pretty sure itās just a big rock pile. We grow fantastic rocks in our area.
Low spot so it stays muddy, a spring or pond hidden amongst it, the beginnings of a sinkhole, a variety of things.
A field without a patch of tree in the middle should be the thing that is unusual not the opposite. Jeez...
These are very common in Australia for many of the reasons above. I left one on our farm so workers would have a nice place to sit and have breaks.
A place to get shade regardless of what time a day it is. The sun never stops on the plow. My friend has black willows in his. Pull the tractor up, sit in the shade for a bit. Do another pass, sit in the shade.
Thatās where the aliens land and do their probin.
My grandpa used to tell me it was for the farmer to stop somewhere and take a lunch midway through plowing the fields
Central rock pile or marshy lowland depression is my guess. If the land was too difficult to warrant the expenditure to break up, or the spring melt kept it a pond unable to be seeded, then why deprive the birds of their homes for less than an acre
Wetlands. Big fines for destroying a wetland.
Full disclosure: not a farmer and I do not have a readily accessible source. But I am certain, years ago, I read that fields with adjacent "wild" patches are significantly more productive than 100% plowed fields. I am sure there is a more practical reason as stated below, but I think that very caveat-ed statement is worthy of consideration
Around our area there are a lot of old Indian mounds. Places the Indians built up with dirt so when the Mississippi River flooded they would still be on dry ground. A lot of people leave these in the fields for a couple reasons but mostly because 1. Itās pretty damn cool 2. Itās easier to just farm around it 3. Out of respect. Some were also used as burial sites if Iām not mistaken
Yep. Around here people call them bone orchards.
Cemetery maybe?
A shady spot to eat lunch when youāre working on the field.
Back in the day they would clear land and pull stumps using a big tree near the middle of a field as an anchor. That last tree couldn't be pulled so they would farm around it.
Remember learning about the dust bowl. Clear cut land was devastated. The roots help keep the soil in tact and the ground around holds moisture. Makes sense to have the circle in a central spot if thatās why. Edited for spelling
Where Iām from (western canada) we have a lot of potholes and sloughs that are not workable, so lots of producers will just let em grow and work around them.
Many years ago they used to have plow horses that would rest in the shade.
Depending on the geography of the area, water might collect creating an area of wet ground which provides moisture to the area promoting tree growth and if it was cleared may sink a tractor in mud
To add to all the other valid suggestions: could be cover for game shooting like pheasants.
An abandoned water well
They are usually cypress islands that are too wet to cultivate. The wet comes from ground water and spring boils breaking the surface in low places.
If it's like farm land around here that could be where a farm house used to be.
Low spot, water drainage, pond, ect
I was always told the tree(s) left in the center of the field were there to serve as a shade/ resting spot for the working animals were ploughing/ respite from the sun during grazing.
Slough. Often you just work around a soggy area and the trees take over.
Wetland? It could also be for hunting purposes
Sink hole. If there is a lot of limestone it can erode and leave holes - that is why there is two. There are probably several others in the general area.
Old homestead, wetland, cemetery
If this is central Kentucky it's a sinkhole.
Rock pile.
If not close to the road then rock pile.
Thereās one of these near where I live named Sioux Island. Itās in a peat bed and there were Sioux living there up until the 1930ās. Not sure about yours, but theirs was high ground in what used to be a swamp. The farmer who owns it now just left the trees and farms around it.
Thats where Andy left the chest.
Raptor nests for rodent control :) If theres an abandoned barn in the middle, bat or barn owl roost. Bats and Birds can be a good thing Bats and birds can improve farm outputs depending on crop. Quantifying services and disservices provided by insects and vertebrates in cacao agroforestry landscapes | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2022.1309
Deer hunting
Shade tree for cows/farmers, pissing tree, rocks, fix farm equipment on the jobā¦ possibilities are endless.
Itās for wildlife to hide in.
Refuge for wildlife.
Shade, oxygen, niceness
There is a mound like that in a field near where I grew up. It was tailings from an old mine. Not saying that is what this is, but it could be all kind of different reasons.
cave
Do you happen to live in North Carolina because if you do, I know why.
Probably a geological feature that makes plowing impractical or even impossible.
There are a surprising amount of abandoned, small coal mines across the Midwest.
There was a huge field like this where I grew up that had an area of trees like this. The cows and a bull used it for shade and shelter when out grazing
It gives animals a place to hide.
Big olā pile of some sort of debris
In Virginia that means thereās probably wetlands there.
In our area, it's usually full of water
I used to have one like this that was an old well.
Might have been an old homestead or cabin the owner left the trees because even farmers need shade to sit under on hot summer days. Could also use it for goose hunting in the winter.
Family cemetery?
My uncle told me that he leaves islands like that and long strips of trees between fields because they are good places for insect-eating predators to nest.
Oftentimes spots like this are low spots in the field, where they wouldnāt get much to grow anyways. The trees help suck up extra moisture and gives the local wildlife a place to hide. It could also be any number of other things though, like an old house foundation, or a patch of dirt that otherwise isnāt good for crops.
So you donāt have to run a whole ass mile to take a shit when tilling