What is this old piece of equipment?

[cnelk]

Came across this old relic while elk hunting in the Bighorns last month.

Anyone know what it was used for?

 

[Dunndm]

Big gear... maybe for a logging machine?


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[Dust Rider]

Or old mining pulley?

 

[Mt Al]

Chupacabra trap. No clue but I love finding old equipment like that. Amazing what men hauled into the mountains long ago.

 

[Ucsdryder]

Did you strap it on your pack and bring it home?!

 

[canyonhunter47]

Did you strap it on your pack and bring it home?!

Put it on a Kifaru and you won’t even notice it

 

[cnelk]

Did you strap it on your pack and bring it home?!

It was 10’ inside the wilderness boundary so all I could do was look at it from a distance. lol

Just kidding.
The big gear was about 3’ across.

 

[tater]

Looks like a secondary gear from a Donkey Engine for logging.

 

[cnelk]

^^ That’s great!
Thanks for the info.

 

[tater]

^^ That’s great!
Thanks for the info.

No problem.
We have a local Fall Fair that has a massive steam implement display every year, and there is usually at least one Donkey running during the three day event. That coupled with the massive vintage chainsaw displays makes for a great way to engage my inner five year old.

 

[AZmark]

I dont know but that looks like an old wooden clutch mechanism of some sort

 

[Rob5589]

Logging Donkey gear thingamajig. How could someone not know that??

Crazy what you'll find seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

 

[P Carter]

When I was working for the USFS we would run into giant steam donkey parts all over northern Idaho. And digging down about 6 inches, we’d run into a big layer of ash from the Big Burn. We don’t have a ton of history out here compared to you guys in the East (or the Southwest, really), but it was pretty cool to reflect on how the population up there used to be many times what it is now.

 

[Trr15]

There were a couple big timber operations in Wyoming back in the 30’s and 40’s that put out millions of ties for the railroad. I’ve found quite a few pieces of equipment, tie hack cabins, etc in different parts of the state. Pretty good chance that’s a relic from that timeframe.

 

[Squamch]

Yep, probably part of an old steam donkey.

 

[4rcgoat]

Came across this old relic while elk hunting in the Bighorns last month.

Anyone know what it was used for?


View attachment 221373

Ive hunted all over the Horns and think ive run into that before ( or one very similar). You can still find old photos of the old flume that carried logs down from the top of the mountain down to a sawmill at the bottom of tongue river canyon. It was used to provide ties for the railroad and other things. You can still find pieces of the old flume in some places,amazing stuff.

 

[AndyB]

Show a pic to the curator of the museum in Walden next time your up there, lots of old pioneer/early settler equipment to be seen.

 

[NDGuy]

I'm no expert but looks like Bigfoot's pizza cutter to me

 

[thinhorn_AK]

I came across a train track near a river where I was hunting a few years ago, took a lot of asking around, turns out back in the day there was a village there and they would use a train engine to pull fishing boats out of the water to work on them.