Recent backyard find...need guidance!

Chris-bius · Nov 9, 2018

I was digging a hole to plant a new mint plant in my back yard recently. Ground was extremely hard so i was digging deep to find good soil. About 2.5 ft I hit an old concrete slab. Directly underneath was old wood planking (resembling old wood floor). Under the wood I pulled up an old medicine bottle that I've been able to date back to 1927. Since that first bottle, I have dug up over 150 bottles, all pre 1950. A lot of the bottles are the same. About 15 brown glass Clorox bleach botttles, many perfume bottles, medicine bottles, and many more. The bottles just keep going and going. Also finding a few other things like a fireman's spanner wrench from 1925. Does anyone have any idea what this is I may have found?

Carolina Tom · Nov 9, 2018

In the old days, everyone dumped their trash in the backyard. You found a DUMP. Keep digging it might get older as it gets deeper.

Good luck sir.

namxat · Nov 9, 2018

Sound like an old septic tank that was filled up with trash when your house got hooked on the sanitation. The only thing that make me wonder is the wood planking which definetely makes not much sense in a septic tank.

Greets Namxat

Yak1366 · Nov 9, 2018

Welcome to TNet!!!

Raider19962 · Nov 9, 2018

Possibly an old well. In Colonial times, when the well dried up and went bad for some reason, they used it as a trash pit until it was full. That's why finding the old privy sites are great spots for a lot of artifacts. "One (Colonial) man's trash is another (modern) man's treasure"!

travis.gore.79 · Nov 9, 2018

Welcome. I would agree with Carolina Tom Keep digging [emoji23]

jgas · Nov 9, 2018

Sounds like a cistern to me. Lots of bottles to be found from that era in those things. Keep digging. Maybe some good treats down further. Jgas.

No gold in NY · Nov 9, 2018

Welcome to TreasureNet Chris-bius. Give us some pictures of your finds and dig site. We like pictures.

Chris-bius · Nov 10, 2018

Thanks for all the replies! I never thought about it being an old well, septic tank, or cistern but those are all definitely possible. I did some research and found out there was a post office located on the adjoining property or really close to it. It was opened in what used to be an old saloon in 1898 and closed in 1948. I've found records about the post office so I'm sure about that. I've been told there use to be an old country store next to the post office but I'm not certain where. With everything I've been finding, what are the odds I've found the old basement of that store? I'll post some pictures as soon as possible. We've had so muck rain here in N.E. Texas lately, the entire hole is flooded with about 4.5 ft of water.