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Mystery post appears on Libby Hill
07/20/2009 12:28 PM by John M
A reader wrote in over the weekend wondering about the new(ish?) mystery post that has been placed at something of a crucial spot in Libby Hill Park. Any ideas?
TAGGED: Libby Hill
I just saw & commented on this on Sunday. Glad it’s not just my poor memory… Looking forward to the knowledge of the chpn commenters on this one.
Someone put it there to piss of people who had enjoyed the historic view of the James from that particular spot.
OR
It was placed there by an alien race and is identical to a monolith Neil Armstrong found buried under the surface of the moon 40 years ago today.
some kind of gas lamp in progress? (looks like the piping could be for that)
The view, my god, the VIEW! It’s obstructed!!!!! I can no longer clearly see the wastewater treatment facility!!!
Quick, someone get an ax.
tic
FanGuy if you’re going to joke like that, at least make sure the view is aimed at the wastewater treatment plant.
Ooh I got a not-so-funny funny… it was placed there by the developers of Echo Harbour!
I’d recommend you just go take it down…that’d be a quick way to find out who put it up there.
Maybe it will be a “FOR SALE” sign
I just went and looked at it in person. It’s almost on the backside of the park, had to get out of the car and walk around the fountain to see it.
It’s a wooden post, maybe 4×4 (or 6×6) with beveled edges. The thing sticking out to the left in the picture is a metal pipe-type thing with a thread on the end of it, and NOT a hanger for a sign, as I first thought. The thing on the top, in the picture, is also a piece of metal with a thread on it. The thing in the picture on the ground is actually the top four or six inches of the post, it was sawed off and sloppily just left on the ground. I picked it up, no holes or anything showing that it’s supposed to be attached to anything.
I called the city parks and rec dept today, but they didn’t put it there and knew nothing of it. I also contacted public works and utilities, hope to hear from them tomorrow.
If an alien put it there, the alien went to Lowe’s for the parts….ET CALL THIS BLOG PLEASE AND EXPLAIN??!! And someone had a post hole digger to sink it in the ground. It’s pretty sturdy.
Houdon #7, you may have a point, I thought of that, too…it’s pretty weird, and most definitely not another gas light. Could somehow be an electric light, but I don’t think so ’cause it’s a wooden pole. Maybe it’s going to be a sign post after all, but it’s in a pretty strange place for that….
It’s a reproduction of 1900’s stripper pole.
it’s obviously a coat hook. someone wanted a place to hang their coat and hat while observing the view coatless and hatless
“Good day… This is a prerecorded briefing… which for security reasons of the highest importance has been known on board during the mission only by your H-A-L 9000 computer. [Forty years] ago the first evidence of intelligent life off the Earth was discovered. It was buried 40 feet below the lunar surface near the crater Tycho. Except for a single very powerful radio emission aimed at Jupiter the four-million year old… monolith has remained completely inert. Its origin and purpose are still a total mystery…”
My first thought was that it was something used for surveying purposes.
Maybe it’s a joke or art project? Want to go check it out.
Bullwinkle, gas piping? Poo-poo that theory.
It could be a very small fitness course. A strategic place to do one arm pull ups whilst partaking of the view.
I say we all gather there at dawn on Wednesday with sticks, odd leg/rib bones and such, beat our chests, dance around and see if it DOES anything just to be sure 😉
Silver, #13, friend of mine who lives over that way wondered about surveying equipment, too. Check it out though, because I don’t think it looks like surveying equipment.
Another thought, wasn’t someone shooting movies last weekend? Could it be left over from that?
This is use for earth moving/grading etc. It is put at a fixed position and elevation. The little arm will have a removable transmitter. Then the bulldozers/graders fix on that and they can make sure they are grading correctly.
Mike, really?! That was my friend’s other guess, that it has something to do with the work on the backside of the hill, they’ve been waiting since Hurricane Isabel (or maybe it was Gaston) to have it fixed. Thanks for clearing up the mystery!
I just spoke to Public Works and they said it is for a GPS base station which must be in a fixed location with an unobstructed view of the sky. It will be there for a few months, and we are asked to PLEASE NOT MOVE IT! Sounds like an expanded version of what Mike posted.
GPS base station sounds a little like #12. Maybe DPW is cooperating with the aliens
It LOOKS like one of those devices they use in the caol fields of Southwest Virignia to track the movement of earth when they feeel theere’s some danger of slides etc using GPS technology.
Dunno if that’s the case here, but if it is, they’ll be multiplying like rabbits.
IF that’s what it is (and I’m not saying it is), best hope for no heavy rains this year.
I can see that happening. The rocks in this hilly area are all round rock and very poor for stabilization. The high clay and water table create a very slippery condition for soils.
Short 30th has had a landslide, as did 31st. Libby Terrace had several landslides during TS Gaston.
Re #17.
That’s what this picture means to me anyway. Think of an autopilot for a bulldozer. Not only do they need to know the x-y position but also depth of the blade. You can feed a final grading plan into a computer and the bulldozer operator will know exactly what the elevation of that hill should be. That way they don’t have to be constantly surveying it for accuracy.
Mike, #17 I spoke to Public Works, and you were exactly correct. It’s to hold a GPS base station for earthmoving equipment to tune into as they grade the back side of Libby Hill, which was damaged quite awhile ago by Hurricane Isabel and tropical storm Gaston. Thanks for the enhanced explanation in #22, too!
i don’t think they had GPS in the 1800s. sorry, can’t use this in our neighborhood, fellas. bring in the canaries and the midgets. they always know when a landslide is about to happen…just like in the old days.
little people…boss…little people
View? From Libby Hill? What view? What is that water running through Richmond? Oh, I get it, it’s the JAMES friggin’ RIVER. Has that been around for a while? Or did it just appear? Let’s just pretend it isn’t there like Echo Harbor is trying to convince us.