Mystery spike

[teknitroxdiver]

I recently found a small spike in a strawberry field that resembles a miniature railroad spike. There has never been a railroad anywhere near where this was found. Any ideas what it is? I'm thinking it's a homemade spike from an old barn or cabin. Here's a photo gallery of it:

Go here and click on 'Mystery Spike': http://community.webshots.com/user/jonathank

 

[teknitroxdiver]

I did some Googleing and discovered that my spike looks a lot like a 16th century Spanish Barrote nail. However I don't know if that's a possibility for Northern Arkansas.

 

[AXL72]

May very well belong to an old barn or something. Plow? Other equipment? Trailer? Carriage?

I do not think it looks robust enough (length and breadth) to be a surveyor's spike for marking off land boudaries or as a survey elevation benchmark, especially in soil. Maybe it is? I have no clue other than these guesses.

 

[tham55]

looks a little like a tie nail, these were placed in a crosstie and may have had a two number date on them, there were a lot of old railroad all of the south that are long gone and forgotten, many track were laided to harvest the trees in the area and were only tempoary lines. the head looks a little rusted up, if it had a date on it this would be the date the tie was laided

 

[scubapember]

I would say it is an old nail used for fences