Surprised workers stumble on ‘highly unusual’ historic item buried in Colorado. See it
A construction crew uncovered a “highly unusual” historical artifact — and it may be the “only one of its kind” in Colorado, officials said.
The crew was working along an intersection in northwest Denver when they dug up part of a century-old water pipeline made from a hollowed-out tree, Denver Water officials said in a news release.
It was 10 inches around with an 8-inch hole bored through the middle for water to pass through. The pipe also had wrought-iron bands wrapped around it “for added durability” and was coated in tar to protect the wood, officials said.
The pipes had been installed in 1886 by the private water supplier to the area at the time, but there was no record of the pipeline on engineering surveys — so “the construction team was very curious” about what they had found, Dallas Howell, construction project manager for the city and county of Denver, said in the release.
“It really took us by surprise,” Howell said. “The first section was badly deteriorated, but the second section was relatively intact.”
That first discovery was in December 2023, and crews discovered another section a month later in January, officials said. Testing then revealed the type of pipe, officials said in the Nov. 1 release.
Officials temporarily stopped work on the construction project to investigate and worked with HDR Inc., the engineering company that planned and designed the project, to analyze the pipes, officials said.
“Finding a pipe like this is not something you come across every day, so it was definitely interesting to see such a unique piece of Denver history,” Howell said.
Megan Mueller, cultural resource specialist at the engineering company, said the company identified them as a Wyckoff pipe.
“The pipes were made by the Michigan Pipe Co. out of Bay City, Michigan,” Mueller said in the release. “They were mostly used in the upper Midwest and Northeast during the late 1800s and early 1900s, so it was very surprising to see one west of the Mississippi.”
Wyckoff pipes were not common in Colorado, officials said. Because of that, Mueller believes it may be “the only one of its kind ever installed” in the state.
This story was originally published December 12, 2024 at 7:54 AM with the headline "Surprised workers stumble on ‘highly unusual’ historic item buried in Colorado. See it."
