OLD Detroit water pipes [[wood!)

**Pcm** · November-25-14, 05:39 PM

I think there was a thread about this a couple of years ago. They're tearing up Woodward for the M1, and looks like someone decided to salvage a unique piece of our history. Yes, the last picture looks like a butthole. Sorry, grow up.

**Jimaz** · November-25-14, 06:17 PM

I'd bet that could be dated by tree rings or carbon dating or something. The second photo shows where some branches were cut off.

Thanks for documenting that.

**sumas** · November-25-14, 07:03 PM

Nope treated canvas

**Honky Tonk** · November-25-14, 07:23 PM

Originally Posted by Pcm

I think there was a thread about this a couple of years ago. They're tearing up Woodward for the M1, and looks like someone decided to salvage a unique piece of our history. Yes, the last picture looks like a butthole. Sorry, grow up.

If your butt-hole looks like the last photo, you need to see a proctoligest, pronto.

**Scottathew** · November-25-14, 07:29 PM

Originally Posted by Honky Tonk

If your butt-hole looks like the last photo, you need to see a proctoligest, pronto.

I giggled heartily at that comment!

Fantastic pictures, thanks for sharing!

**Detroit Signal** · November-25-14, 10:44 PM

Tamarack [[sp?) logs were used for old water mains.

**LarryC39** · November-25-14, 11:55 PM

Doesn't look right. I thought most of them were tarred/wrapped in wire. This looks more like a rotten old tree.

**detroitbob** · November-26-14, 01:49 AM

Several years ago when work was going on at Woodward and I375 [[formerly E. Vernor) the original water mains leading into the original foundations of St. John's Episcopal Church was unearthed. The area had been covered over sincie 1936. St.John' was able to salvage some stone and the workers gave the rector a section of the wooden water main.

**old guy** · November-26-14, 04:13 AM

There was a thread about these water pipes a while back. Might have been on the old site.

This slice of wood log water pipe, created from a tamarack tree log, represents the type of pipe used to deliver water as early as the 1830s in the Detroit, Michigan, area. It has been out of service since the early 1900s and was removed from the ground in the mid-1970s. It has a two-inch diameter passage within a six-inch outside diameter tamarack log.Source: Courtesy of George McDonald, P.E., R. S. Engineering, Tucson, Arizona [[previously with the firm of Rust Environment and Infrastructure). Discuss Detroit: Wooden water mains

**rb336** · November-26-14, 07:44 AM

There are, supposedly, still wood water pipes in service in NYC

**jackie5275** · November-26-14, 11:57 AM

Originally Posted by old guy

There was a thread about these water pipes a while back. Might have been on the old site.

This slice of wood log water pipe, created from a tamarack tree log, represents the type of pipe used to deliver water as early as the 1830s in the Detroit, Michigan, area. It has been out of service since the early 1900s and was removed from the ground in the mid-1970s. It has a two-inch diameter passage within a six-inch outside diameter tamarack log.Source: Courtesy of George McDonald, P.E., R. S. Engineering, Tucson, Arizona [[previously with the firm of Rust Environment and Infrastructure). Discuss Detroit: Wooden water mains

I brought this up a few years ago too, but this looks like it's from the old forum site.

**old guy** · November-26-14, 01:38 PM

Originally Posted by jackie5275

I brought this up a few years ago too, but this looks like it's from the old forum site.

You are correct jackie, there were several.
Wooden Water Main Pipes

**RickBeall** · November-26-14, 03:40 PM

The Detroit Historical Museum should get a woodie.

[[In keeping with the humor of the original subject.)

**scottn55** · November-26-14, 03:58 PM

They removed the last of our wooden mains in Ypsilanti about ten years ago during a road construction/underground infrastructure blitz. There's a section of one on display at the YCUA [[Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority) offices near Willow Run.

**Smirnoff** · November-27-14, 03:05 PM

No wonder why our drinking water had a slight taste of Vernor's.......

**RaumVogel** · November-28-14, 07:50 PM

Learned something new today.

**old guy** · November-29-14, 02:30 AM

Originally Posted by scottn55

They removed the last of our wooden mains in Ypsilanti about ten years ago during a road construction/underground infrastructure blitz. There's a section of one on display at the YCUA [[Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority) offices near Willow Run.

I don't doubt that you are correct, but I lived in Ypsi for a year or so, and with so much semi rural area, I'd be surprised that all the wooden water mains have been found and removed. As with any communities around the country. It just isn't something that money is spent on to find and remove. The fittings that connected the pipes are extremely unique. I hope that in further excavations they find more of those and preserve them. I ran across a number of examples of them years ago, [[can't seem to find them now) but they were pieces of art in my opinion. Great technology for the time they were built.