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  • From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] interesting discovery
  • Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2007 05:07:16 -0700


I suspected, but wanted to confirm. When I started as a laborer for Pacific Gas & Electric Company in the early sixties, this is what we used to backfill pipe ditches. We pulled it with a winch running off the front end of the truck. We called it a Mormon Board. I have earlier heard the term, Fresno Scraper.

That you found one on your property tells me that you have real soil, as compared to my part of the Ozarks, where such a tool would be usable only in sandy bottom land.

Such finds are exciting and often useful. My digging bar is an old wagon axle I found mostly buried along the stream road. I also have a metal wheel rim, three or four feet in diameter, which awaits a project.

On Apr 22, 2007, at 4:09 PM, VAN DELL JORDAN wrote:

It is a horse drawn earth moving tool. This one is
about 2.5' wide x 2' deep x 1' tall. A Y shaped
bracket attaches to harness with a clevis and to a
loop on each side of the scoop. A wooden handle on
each side extending out back. The operator pushes
down on the front to scoop up dirt, then lifts the
front until the dumping place is reached, when he
lifts the back to empty.
This one appears to have been at least partly hand
forged.
This was the primary tool used in building of the Erie
Canal. A later heavier duty version is called the
"fresno scraper".






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