Industrial Archeology: what's this scoop for?

Found alongside the Wild River, not far from one of the old bridge sites. Date unknown.

It's awfully shallow and flimsy for a dredge or shovel. It's made from a single sheet, yet those corner rivets are strongly reinforced for some reason. There are holes in the bottom, possibly for drainage. No idea what the hook and loop on the side are used for.

No other artifacts seen in close proximity. Did see a crushed 50-gallon oil drum (only somewhat rusty - all in one piece) about a mile further upstream.

https://davidalbeck.smugmug.com/Wild-River-July-2021/i-v6QXFrj/A

This implement has a few different names like pond scoop, dirt scoop, or scraper.
It had two wooden handles on either side and a u-shaped metal bar attached to those hooks so that it could be pulled by a horse or mule.

evilhanz said:

This implement has a few different names like pond scoop, dirt scoop, or scraper.
It had two wooden handles on either side and a u-shaped metal bar attached to those hooks so that it could be pulled by a horse or mule.

View attachment 6685 View attachment 6687

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Thanks!

(Merci, Grazie, arigato, spassiba, ta, shukran, dhanyavaad ... there, that should be long enough)

nartreb said:

Thanks!

(Merci, Grazie, arigato, spassiba, ta, shukran, dhanyavaad ... there, that should be long enough)

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Danke?

789

A logging railroad ran beside the Wild River, building them means moving a lot of soil and gravel from cuts and borrow pits to build up embankments to carry them at an easy enough grade and curvature, and a one-horse scraper seems a very efficient way to move some of it. We use ATVs and tracked dump barrows in pathwork today, after all. Work smarter, not harder...

the Wild River trail today still runs on top of extensive earthworks, obviously originally built for a railway. (Except for a couple of spots where the river widened and erased the railway.) There's no way a lightweight scoop like the one in the photo did the real digging - that's why I was so mystified. The scoop is primarily a grader, good for leveling out (or adjusting the slope of) dirt or fine gravel that is free of large rocks and has already been piled into roughly the right shape. It can also do a little light moving-and-dumping.