What is It?

It's for urban skiing.....this cart attaches to the rear of your street racer and can adjust the length of ski rope with push button wireless switch held by skier....

Looks like a device for spooling off cable or hose or drain rodding.
Del

It looks interesting & would be great to see more of it If you can take a few more pictures of it & give us a better view of it from behind & infront

No can do! This single photo is not mine, but came from a guy in CA who doesn't know either. He guessed a farming device, which matches several suggestions. A friend from an antique truck club also guessed it was for logging; he called it a logging arch.

Another suggested it might be a reel for laying/picking up electric cable used to power machinery in an open pit mine. This was a possibility mentioned in this thread. Apparently the photo was taken in Oroville, CA, which was said to be mining territory.

I'm hoping for more possibilities, and then assemble them to post here.

That removes all doubt about what it is.

Where I'm from, "them wheels zud just git hung up ina trees ya had ta skid thru. Ain't no room for 'um".

Where is PlbMak when needed? Dear, oh dear.

The picture is not clear as a rock blocks an essential view. But it looks like a farm implement to pull logs out of the woods. The pulley on top is to help lift one end up and then the horses can drag it out. However the hitch has been modified and shortened to use a tractor. Smaller trees can be bundled and still handled as one end is lifted and the drag is much smoother.

I've seen these but they usually sling the logs underneath a raised axle....

That's because most farmers built them from whatever they had on hand at the time to clear their woodlots.

Yup, looks like a Horse/Tractor drawn Skidder.....

It appears the sheave and eye at the top are for lifting the mechanism, indicates to me that it is sort of heavy in use.

The tongue end... it almost appears to be a trailer ball. Is it, indeed, rigged for a double tree for horses/mules?

I tend to agree, some sort of rig to lay cable or flex pipe.

Winch cable went through the pulley to lift end of log...probably pulled by small dozer...I'd guess pre 1930's vintage... getting the end up on wheels would make the pull easier.

The wheels look to be too large and "flimsy" to be used for skidding logs in a forest. More likely it would be used for laying cables in a trench. The picture is taken alongside a road, which may be a clue as to it's use. A modern machine wouldn't be using spoked wheels, so it may have been cobbled up for a singular use.

If you examine the picture carefully, this is clearly not any kind of cable laying, or, any other type of "reel". The lower forks are outside the wheels: OK, but, the upper "forks" come together between the wheels where they are joined to the upright holding the upper mechanism; this arrangement prevents any sensible quantity of cable/rope/cord being wound onto the axle.