Welcome to one of many gabions used in architecture in Spearfish! This one marks the Sawmill Community Rec Path, a fantastic recent addition thanks to the Neiman Family. The small cache can be found inside this structure. Bring you own pencil to sign the log & read on:
A gabion (from Italian gabbione meaning "big cage"; from Italian gabbia and Latin cavea meaning "cage") is a cage, cylinder or box filled with rocks, concrete, or sometimes sand and soil for use in civil engineering, road building, military applications and landscaping.
Leonardo da Vinci designed a type of gabion called a Corbeille Leonard ("Leonard[o] basket") for the foundations of the San Marco Castle in Milan.
Early gabions were round cages with open tops and bottoms, made from wickerwork and filled with earth for use as military fortifications.
Today, gabions are often used to protect forward operating bases (FOBs) against explosive, fragmentary, indirect fires such as mortar or artillery fire.