Interesting Piece

[Skamaniac]

I was out in a local park in a spot that looks like the remains of a small farm orchard. I dug this piece up from about a foot down. I was a rusted hunk, hard to tell even what shape it was. After processing the rust off with apple cider vinegar and electrolysis this emerged.

I had a local historian give me his opinion, but I thought I'd throw it out there to see what you think.

 

[Full Metal Digger]

Looks like maybe an apple picker that mounted on a long wooden pole?

 

[Skamaniac]

DaddyDigger - The park is along the Washington shore of the Columbia River. My friend thought this was a rope hook used on a long pole to bring in salmon nets placed in the river. But where I found this item was about 200 yards in from the current shoreline (it was about 400 yards before 1938 when the Bonneville Dam went in downstream). As I was typing in the original post when I wrote about the old orchard a light bulb went off and I believe you are right on. It may or may not originally be a rope hook, but I believe it was probably used as a fruit picker.

Any fishermen out there recognize this as a net hook or buoy line hook?