With the telephone poles along the bank I would say that the creek is out of its banks and on the road.
The front end looks like a 1915.
Pole on right is local phone company service with added circuit on "pigs ears"
below the two arms.
What is really interesting is the single wire, ground return "farmer line" phone
line on the right. Few people understand today that it was common practice in
the pre-1920 era for rural subscribers to be forced to build their own line in to
a place where it could be hooked in to the local exchange system. These lines
were built to no real standards and often exhibited amazing feats of cheap con-
-struction to get that wire to the exchange hook in. Single wire cut costs by almost
half, but resulted in a murky, echoey sound, much like speaking to someone in
the bottom of a well. I have hunted farmer lines where the insulators were simply
broken-off whiskey bottle necks set over a cut off tree limb ! ... or anything else
they could find ! These lines were notorious for using hand-me-down hardware
and often resulted in some great insulator finds.
Note the variety of sizes and shapes of the insulators on the other pole. This
line has been here a long time. The pole and arms being updated as more sub-
-scribers were added, but the glass being re-used and added to as needed.
Burger, near where I 'normally'live,there are fencerows where you can still see the occasional phone line insulator on top of a wood fence post. Emphatically not for an electric fence.
Where I "normally" live, they cover most flat surfaces, occupy
display cases and shelves, and hang from every wall and ceiling
on their old brackets !
Even the TT has it's own bunch.
I began collecting insulators 50 years ago, September. Right about the time I
was taking great interest in T-era cars, those sparkly poletop glass things also
caught my eye. It has been a lifetime wasted chasing wires, glass, and old rusty
things.
If any of youz'alls ever want to know anything about the insulators you find, I
am always happy to share the knowledge.
Burger, I have a small collection of insulators also. Most of them got sold or traded away when I downsized everything else. Nothing I have left is unusual. Living not far from the Erie Railroad,I had two or three insulators branded Erie Railroad. Before I was into ebay myself, I had a friend sell them. I was staggered by what they brought. Went hunting for more in same spot then. Found nothing.
Early NY&ERR or ERW marked insulators are highly sought after. The later ones
marked simply "ER", not so much, unless they are crude, junky, or have good color.
Strangely, a wad of the NY&ERR jobs were found out west in N. California and S.
Oregon. Obviously someone shipped some RR-marked stuff out west to fill an order.
No one has ever been able to figure out the origins, as the insulators are typically
dug from old privies and give little clue as to their use or user.