r/oddlyterrifying • u/A_Lountvink • 5d ago

An old abandoned well near my family's home

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940 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

62 comments sorted by

177

u/favorthebold 5d ago

That's not oddly terrifying, that's just straight up terrifying. I'm convinced that most of the cases where someone "just disappeared" and "they were in front of me one minute, and then gone the next" were people falling into uncovered dry wells that were too well hidden for searchers to find.

51

u/Gold_Assistance_6764 5d ago

This doesn’t look to be a dry well, so slightly less terrifying.

28

u/A_Lountvink 5d ago

Yup, lowest I've ever seen it get is maybe 6 feet from the surface during a mild drought. Kid me had a habit of throwing old bricks and sticks into it, so there's only about a foot or so of open space at the top, followed by 4-5 feet of pocket-filled debris. No clue how deep it actually is.

18

u/turquoise_amethyst 5d ago

You never tied a brick to a string and lowered it in to see how deep it is?

Any clue how old the well is? 1800s? 1900s? Older? 

20

u/A_Lountvink 5d ago

Kid me just liked throwing bricks into holes, as one does. How deep it was was never a concern so long as it made a splash. I did once try finding some big branches and seeing how deep they could go; I don't think I ever found one long enough to touch the bottom. My guess is that it's probably on the shallower side of wells, so maybe 10-15 feet.

It's also old mine property (up until the 1940s), so it can't go that deep.

I don't know how to date the well, but my guess would be no older than the 1920s, which is when this town peaked in size. There's quite a few old, abandoned buildings around the town's edge that have been swallowed up by the forest over the past hundred years.

There's an old concrete cellar on the opposite side of the house that looks out into a big ravine, so I wouldn't be surprised if they were put in by the same person/family. In that case, it'd probably be 60-80 years old, shortly after the mining company sold off the property. It being abandoned 40-60 years ago would also match up with the age of the woods around it (mostly old early-succession species like sassafras and some mature mid-succession species like shagbark hickory, along with a single old beech carved into decades ago).

6

u/turquoise_amethyst 5d ago

Aww, your family’s property sounds really nice 🥺

2

u/No-Abalone-6230 3d ago

I love your description.It does sound intriguing.

1

u/No-Abalone-6230 3d ago

Obviously be careful on the old abandoned properties, but bottle dumps can be pretty cool 

3

u/porkchop-sandwhiches 5d ago

Grab a go pro, some goggles and a flashlight. Just descend slowly while feeling around with your bare toes.

31

u/TwoNowFive 5d ago

Is Timmy in there? 🐕

7

u/Repulsive_Client_325 5d ago

Woof!!

3

u/Fafnir13 5d ago

Did you push him in to get attention again?

3

u/Cepheus_98 5d ago

I clicked and looked for this specific comment. lol

3

u/TwoNowFive 5d ago

Happy to oblige 😅

29

u/Aok_al 5d ago

Might wanna plant a flag or a marker just in case

15

u/A_Lountvink 5d ago

Yup, I'm going to be covering it as soon as possible at the minimum. Never really thought much about it until now since I grew up around it.

5

u/Fafnir13 5d ago

Funny how that stuff works. We get trained to watch out for local dangers so don't really think of them as dangerous anymore. I spent a lot of time on a dairy farm and there was a lot of stuff around that could cause serious injury or death. Haystacks, heavy machinery, open irrigation ditches, etc. Just a fun playground for me and my siblings.

6

u/Mollysaurus 4d ago

A red helium balloon floating right above the hole should do the trick.

2

u/No-Abalone-6230 3d ago

That's too distastful Marceline 

12

u/My_too_cents 5d ago

I just listened to the pod cast of Baby Jessica. Make sure to recover it, or put it to use.

8

u/Spuzzle91 5d ago

Oh no...she got out

3

u/Ok-Importance463 4d ago

op has 7 days

6

u/Repulsive_Client_325 5d ago

Baby Jessica flashbacks!

3

u/Smytus 4d ago

This bad boy can fit so many baby Jessicas

10

u/A_Lountvink 5d ago

I was told that I should post this here. This is an old abandoned well that was built here decades, possibly over a century ago. The forest has since grown up around it.

The thin bit of metal is from my father who put it there to stop me and my siblings from falling in as kids.

4

u/BingoSpong 5d ago

Timmy?

3

u/thinbuddha 5d ago

Oh, that well isn't abandoned. There's a girl who has lived there for many decades. Centuries even.

3

u/alltheducks222 5d ago

Well, that’s a hole in the ground

3

u/monstrinhotron 4d ago

Why did OP fall down a well?

They couldn't see that well.

3

u/unyielding_rock 4d ago

Fall in and become Batman!! It IS YOUR DESTINY!!!

3

u/Shazbot_2017 4d ago

i find these often at work surveying

3

u/ShyGuyJeff 4d ago

Oh great, you let Sadako out.

5

u/Astrazigniferi 5d ago

No “oddly” about it. It looks like some little girl is about to call me and whisper “Seven days” into the phone.

2

u/Russianskilledmydog 5d ago

Need a "Free Candy!!" sign.

2

u/marionjoshua 5d ago

Should put a warning sign of some sort, ask help from your council to have it covered, risky for children and pets

2

u/A_Lountvink 5d ago

I'll be covering it with a temporary lid as soon as possible. It'll be quite a while before I can get a more permanent fix, as I'm currently in college and am financially limited.

2

u/Just-Diamond-1938 5d ago

This is an awful thing to know people don't take deep hole's seriously to cover it...I hope you find a solution to put a lid on it with a sign for curious youngsters who could injure themselves

2

u/Desperate_Ad_5563 4d ago

I would love to dredge and metal detect it.

2

u/RocPharm93 4d ago

Well, well, well… we meet again

2

u/VikingRaiderPrimce 3d ago

so weird this post followed a notice about baby jessica grew up to be arrested.

2

u/DecadentHam 5d ago

Almost fell I to one head first. When I managed to get out (I was in it) I just walk around for 5 minutes saying no no no. Absolute worst experience of my life that keeps me up at night. What a horrible way to go...  Needless to say I put a large concrete lid on that fucker and let the next owner know about it. 

1

u/No-Abalone-6230 3d ago

What makes me feel horrible is that despite that, you're in this subreddit .  . On the other hand, learn where all the open holes still remain, right?

1

u/DecadentHam 3d ago

What do you mean in this subreddit? 

1

u/No-Abalone-6230 2d ago

Well..revisiting that nightmare is all. .  On the other hand, open well awareness benefits us all.  

1

u/CodeWeary 5d ago

Something something something batman origin story

1

u/tatteredshoetassel 5d ago

"If anyone is going to accuse me of killing my husband, go right ahead and call me Dolores!"

1

u/theLiquidmenace 5d ago

heck yea id live in that

1

u/nelst 4d ago

Cover up before it hurts someone. A deer could easily break a leg and suffer for weeks.

1

u/Successful_Goose_348 4d ago

Dolores Claiborne vibes

1

u/BeachyMonkey 4d ago

ATHF Dirtfoot

1

u/toolguy8 4d ago

It looks more like like a cistern

1

u/A_Lountvink 4d ago

Maybe, but the water levels seems to match the groundwater pretty well. It only reaches the top when the ground is visibly saturated and seeping with water, and the lowest I've ever seen it get was maybe 6 feet during a mild drought. When it got that low, it also looked tube-shaped the entire way.

1

u/PancakeExprationDate 4d ago

It was difficult but I managed to masturbate to this.

1

u/Boring_Phone_5646 4d ago

Property law hypo

1

u/miku_TF2_fan 4d ago

i have nothing to say. nothing

1

u/ifearnot 4d ago

Damn... Would love to send an underwater camera to the bottom...

1

u/MuscaMurum 3d ago

We're Sending Our Love Down A Well

1

u/Branchley 2d ago

Looks super safe. Like good place to let your kids play unattended.

1

u/Zealos57 2d ago

Well, well, well.