Re: Remey Tomb/Crypt
Posted by:
DiamondD-REK
()
Date: March 07, 2010 01:03PM
My visit, with my friend “Club”….
1. THE VENTS: The vents are about 20 feet from each other, measuring from the center of each. They seem to be in line with the spire/obelisk, most likely confirming the theory that the vents and spire are the Rwest and Reast ends of the Remeum.
Note from the original pictures of the vents, they are structurally different (Sculler: this is the reason you could not test the depth of the Rwest vent). Perhaps one was intended for intake of air, the other for release of air. I don’t know much about the physics of flues, but I think that makes sense. The Rwest vent holes curve up (presumably bending back down to the underground areas), while the Reast vent has three shafts going straight down to those areas. I lit a small fire in one of the holes from the Rwest vent, and the flames shot inward (hence the intake/outtake theory). On one of four trials did we observe smoke coming from the Reast vent after lighting the fire on the Rwest vent (the other three times, most smoke was blown out of the other side of the Rwest vent). This leads me to believe that there is some sort of air circulation, but the debris (sticks, brick shards, beer cans, etc.) in the Reast vent prevent most of the air from circulating. I’m not completely sure, but after viewing the area, I’ll go back and conduct more experiments on the air circulation; which, now that I think of it, is a great indicator of whether the underground areas are still there.
Also, based on ballpark measurement, the deepest of the three shafts in the Reast vent is about 10ft, the other two between 6-8ft
2. THE HOLE: The hole goes down about 8 feet or so, and does strike a structure that seems to be intact. There are bricks and half-bricks embedded in the walls of the hole, indicating some sort of demolition. The hole is inline with the vents and the spire/obelisk. To my best knowledge (based on being there and taking eyeball measurements, and jgr007’s reconstituting of my MS Paint pic from 3/5/10, 1:07pm) the hole digs down to where the first picture on this thread shows, and not the ‘56JD/91 entrance.
There were no dirt piles near the hole. That opens up two theories: One, the hole was dug many years ago, and erosion has taken the excess dirt piles; or two, it is a sinkhole. Based on a conversation from a spelunker I know, the hole I described is a sinkhole. Despite this, how would a sinkhole randomly appear inline with the spire and vents, and happen to hit a structure? I do think someone dug the hole, but I’m not completely ruling out the sinkhole theory. Either way, be careful when going into the hole.
3: THE SPIRE/OBELISK: The only thing I can say about it that hasn’t been said is that it is near 50ft tall, not 30ft as previously estimated. I’ll post a picture here soon, with me standing against the structure. I’m ~6ft tall with boots on, and it takes about 8 of me to reach the top (again, pictures coming soon).
4: THE SURVEY MARKS: The CMR 1937 markers mentioned by BBX exist; I saw three of them on the Rwest side of the structure. Remember, from one of the first few posts, it mentions “Due to vandalism…Pohick church pressured Remey into breaking the 1937 contract”. These seem to be survey markers from that year, two years before construction began.
In addition to pictures, I’ve got some video of the area. I’ll post them on youtube or another site; I’ll keep you informed.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/2010 01:20PM by DiamondD-REK.