Chunks of Chimney in Yard???

[Chadoni]

Not sure if this is the right forum for this, but here I go:
I recently moved to a home in Illinois with a 5 acre lot. This lot is wooded in back, and the house has been vacant for about a year. A college student was living here for a few years before that, so it was not maintained very well.
Here's the interesting and weird part. My husband and I are getting ready to do some clean-up in the wooded area of the lot, and we came across something very strange that we can't seem to explain. Scattered all over the approximately 3 acre wooded area are chunks (some of them rather large) of brick chimney.
Does anyone have any ideas as to how those could have gotten there? Or why or how someone could have scattered them like that? Each chunk is pretty heavy and they are not all close to the road that runs next to the property. So I can't see that it could have been just dumping.
My curiosity is piqued!
Any ideas as to what this could be would be fun to hear!

Chadoni

 

[Danno77]

where are you at in IL. similar story here. Tornado damage from 10 years ago....

 

[vvvv]

Scattered brick pieces over a 3 acre area? Tornado sounds feasible.

 

[oldspark]

Once when I was driving home from work I noticed this guys chimney had fallen over next to the house, he must not have secured it to the house very well, can you imagine waking up in the middle of the night and wondering why the draft on the stove is not working only to find the chimney gone.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Could there have been a barn or other out building there at one time?

Matt

 

[firefighterjake]

A. Tornado
B. Person disposed of old chimney in the back yard to save money on disposal costs
C. Site of old camp, shed, etc.
D. Santa broke it attempting to go down the chimney . . . he should have passed on eating those extra chocolate chip cookies at the Johnson Household

 

['bert]

Previous owner was stealing wood and got the one piece that some one who was tired of having his wood stolen had put a stick of dynamite in.

 

[Chadoni]

Wow! These are all great speculations! I never thought of a tornado! I live in West/Central Illinois.
I'm pretty sure it wasn't from an outhouse or shed, since the place is very wooded.
The dynamite guess made me laugh!
The color of the brick is not the same as the color of the brick of the rest of our house, and the current chimney does not look newer than the rest of the brick of the house.
I think the most plausible is probably some type of tornado or something.
Any other ideas out there?

 

[Danno77]

Where at in West central Illinois? PM me if you aren't comfortable sharing with everybody on the internet.

 

[Chadoni]

I'm near the Quad Cities... you know Davenport, Bettendorf, Moline, Rock Island.
I do know that there once used to be an old victorian home on this property that was moved to another location, but that was a really long time ago... like 40 or more years ago. I'm doubtful that it would be remains from that, but I guess you never know.
I'm still leaning towards the tornado idea, simply because I can't think of any other plausible explanation. I really don't think someone who was dumping something would take the time to scatter it all over the 3 acre area, ya know?

 

[Danno77]

I'm near the Quad Cities... you know Davenport, Bettendorf, Moline, Rock Island.
I do know that there once used to be an old victorian home on this property that was moved to another location, but that was a really long time ago... like 40 or more years ago. I'm doubtful that it would be remains from that, but I guess you never know.
I'm still leaning towards the tornado idea, simply because I can't think of any other plausible explanation. I really don't think someone who was dumping something would take the time to scatter it all over the 3 acre area, ya know?

My parents farm up near Aledo, il and I can think of several tornadoes in the area in the last 15 years. The one thing that would go against that theory is that generally if the tornado is strong enough to toss chunks of your chimney around like that there would be some pretty significant damage to the roof of the house (at a minimum). My house lost about half of the finished attic when it was hit.

 

[Chadoni]

That's true. This house doesn't look like there was much damage at all, if any.
Come to think of it, I do remember there was some tornado activity in a town near here about 10 yrs ago. It took out most of the trees in the cemetery there. I don't remember if it affected my town though.
What a mystery!

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Around here it's not uncommon to find an old chimney out back- usually that meant there was a house there that burnt or was demolished. It's best when the chimney is still standing, but no building.

100 yrs later- the woods grow back and that's all you see. This whole area was deforested and has grown back- you find evidence of old farm habitation all over.

 

[SteveKG]

I've seen this sort of thing a number of times in a number of places, mostly "rural" and where a house or other building once was nearby, burned down or torn down or tornadoed down or whatever. The salvageable parts were likely hauled away, if there were any, such as doors and planking and sinks, other stuff rotted over time. The chimney parts will be there for centuries and are often the only remaining clue that a building was there. Get a box of it collected, stick it up on eBay as archeological finds.

Or, at some point in the dim past, someone dumped some demolition materials to avoid dumping fees.

 

[mayor mcheese]

I'll bet it was from the house that was once there and moved. I have watched a couple houses get moved in my area and the chimney was the only thing left behind.