Bottle Hunting

[Bass]

Question for those who are bottle hunters. My main hobby is metal detecting but i also love old bottles. I have a site that was a small village for approximately 75 years in the 1800's. i have never found a bottle there. the site is full of small rolling hills with 5 old wagon roads that intersected where the town was. How do i go about trying to figure out where the dumpsite is? Really have no idea how to locate it. Any help or pointers will be greatly appreciated

 

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[surf]

Hey BA,

If I wanted to hear from the bottle guys, I'd ask the mods to move this to the Bottle & Glass department, or repost there. Do you know the name of this place? I'd start by trying to find maps. Do you have an idea as to the 19th Century population?

I'd investigate all nearby ravines, gullies, water courses. I'd walk fence / property lines. Pay particular attention to cellar holes, any depressions in back or side yards.

Do you have a probe? Good Luck on the hunt.

 

[Bass]

Hey BA,

If I wanted to hear from the bottle guys, I'd ask the mods to move this to the Bottle & Glass department, or repost there. Do you know the name of this place? I'd start by trying to find maps. Do you have an idea as to the 19th Century population?

I'd investigate all nearby ravines, gullies, water courses. I'd walk fence / property lines. Pay particular attention to cellar holes, any depressions in back or side yards.

Do you have a probe? Good Luck on the hunt.

Where is the bottle and glass forum on this site? Honestly i thought thats where we are now. My bad. The town had a population of around 50-75 for the majority of its existence. Blacksmith shop, 2 churches, 1 tavern, 1 or 2 dry goods/general store, 1 motel, courthouse and a jail The entire area population would have been 500-1000.(thats probably 5 miles in all 4 directions from the town). Just south of the town about 1/8 mile there is a very small creek and that is a lower elevation area.

 

[Bass]

Where is the bottle and glass forum on this site? Honestly i thought thats where we are now. My bad. The town had a population of around 50-75 for the majority of its existence. Blacksmith shop, 2 churches, 1 tavern, 1 or 2 dry goods/general store, 1 motel, courthouse and a jail The entire area population would have been 500-1000.(thats probably 5 miles in all 4 directions from the town). Just south of the town about 1/8 mile there is a very small creek and that is a lower elevation area.

Can i get this tread moved to the bottle forum?

 

[Joshr29]

Surf is the real expert here but there may be a chance that one of the wagon trails has a dump along it somewhere if the town used any kind of community dump. Surf will let you know if I am way off on this one.

 

[surf]

Hey Josh,

Thanks for the kind words, but there's quite a few members that have notable bottle, and digging expertise in these parts. Hopefully some of them will chime in with further thoughts for the fish killer.

 

[Bass]

Nice picture, i like your sense of humor. Very much like mine. .. So, this are had alot of old homesites that can be identified in the spring when the jonquils are blooming. Also, there will be a depression in the ground about 3-4 feet in diameter and about a foot or 2 deep. I've been thinking these were water wells that have filled in over time. Now i'm thinking some of these could be old privys. I am in louisiana so we dont have to dig too deep to find water. Should i get a probe and probe these depressions? How deep were privys usually dug.?

 

[surf]

Hey BA,

I've got no experience digging in Louisiana, but I have read accounts of N'awlins privy digs. They call them wet privies. I'd imagine they are at least 5 foot or better deep. Here's a page on a guy digging in Houma: What are Outhouse Diggers? You might like this story: Privy Digging in New Orleans

Sounds like privy digging anywhere, just muddier. Yeah, I expect you'd be happy to have a probe.

 

[Joshr29]

Hey Josh,

Thanks for the kind words, but there's quite a few members that have notable bottle, and digging expertise in these parts. Hopefully some of them will chime in with further thoughts for the fish killer.

Surf

Would the 19th century be to early for organized town dumps? I'm trying to learn as much as I can so I can give good info. Thanks.

 

[surf]

New Guy Dumb question

Hey Josh,

Sanitation practices varied tremendously from place to place in the 19th Century. "Organized" is not a term that I think about in conjunction with dumps. They're generally a riot! By the late 1890's things were getting more "organized" in the world of dumping, at least in these parts.

Every dump I've dug has been pretty localized, if not tied directly to a single location, but I'm usually digging in an urban area. I've found some "neighborhood" dumping areas, or at least, what I interpret as neighborhood dumps. They have been way too large for any individual establishment or family. I found a block long dump, on a local Sanborn map, but have only been able to highlight limited portions of it, due to an ongoing construction project. I keep getting kicked outta there, alas...

Here's a bit of dump "history": Landfills.

You gotta follow the "Rags, Sacks & Bottles" man.

Oral History: Ines Belli​

 

[NJnuggetpirate]

i also recommend streams bc i found the oldest produce orange crush bottles in the stream

 

[unclemac]

I know of a similar town to what you describe...small, isolated and no longer visible above gound. I found the dump to be located in the closest bog, where things would sink and sort of just disappear on their own. Mostly broken ceramics and jars and bottles. People in those days didn't through out stuff like we do today...they fixed them instead.

 

[Bass]

Ok and thats a good place to look. On the edge of where this little village sat( and i mean directly behind where one of the merchants would have been) the landscape falls off into a small ravine. I discovered this a couple of weeks ago. I think this would have been an excellent place for a town dumpsite. The only other possibility is to follow the road that goes south and you will pass the old cemetary (about a quarter mile) and the road falls off into a creek bottom for a short distance then rises back into a hilly area. I think the ravine is going to give me my best shot at finding old bottles, other than trying to locate a privy that may have been located behind where the hotel sat.

 

[jgas]

Okay Bass so lets get down to the dirty work here. I have dug approximately 300 or so privies where I am here in Indiana. These privies are usually 6 to 8 feet deep. Some spots in town have water at the base but for the most part we can get to the "Use Layer" without wearing water proof boots. If you can get permission to look around an existing home or business then you have gotten half way to goodies. Now stand at the back door of the place and imagine yourself living in the 1800's and look to where you would put an out house and where you may go make a dump site for your trash. Seems to me most privies here have a trash pit close by and an ash pit. Look for the perimeters of the yard. I would locate most privies where the wind travels away from the home. On the borders of the property, near the corners or back alleys. Get yourself a 6 foot spring steel probe and a 4 footer. Make sure they are spring steel. Thats a must. Then go get a work out for awhile. You may feel a pit right away or you may probe all stinking day. Thats the way it goes. Now feel for an area that is different from the surrounding ground. It should feel softer, with layering of dirt and ash. Bricks and debris will be there too. Once you get the hang of it you will do fine. Then start digging. But try not to dig alone okay. Its not safe by yourself. Make sure you mark the gas lines before digging too. That is critical. Don't want to hit a line and start a ruckus over spilled natural gas! You would be surprised to see where these companies bury their stuff. Once you dig look for shards of glass and just about anything you would have thrown out back then. That way you can kinda date the site. Okay now lets get out there and sling some dirt!! Hope that helps a bit. jgas

 

[Bass]

Thanks for the words of encouragement jgas. I do have a couple of homesites in the works as we speak and hope to get to use my recently purchased steel spring probe at one of these places. These are modern homes on top of older homesites most of which go back to 1890 -ish. The one site that goes back to about 1840 is the one that i am currently trying to figure out. Picture a community volunteer fire station as the center of where the village sat. On the northeast side of the fire station is now a cow pasture. This is where the jail was. I have permission to metal detect but can't do any large scale digging. To the north side of the station is overgrown shrubbery with a root system like i've never seen before. The same gentleman that owns the pasture also owns this property. I have access to this as well, but would have to talk with him about digging there. This is where the hotel was. My suspicion is there was a privy behind this hotel. To the west side of town, directly behind any storefronts that may have existed(i know for sure a church, and my metal detector tells me a blacksmith shop), there is 2-3 small ravines that drop off and the ground level drops about 10-15 feet from that of the village. To the south is all thick wooded area for a 1/4 mile, then a cemetary and after that a low area where a tiny creek runs through. My thought is to take a shovel and start digging in one if the ravines. They look to be the easiest location for a local dumpsite for any business that may have been there. At most a 150 yard journey from the farthest business. ... So my question is, should i try and locate a privy in the motel area or dig in the ravine? And yes i do have a probe now. I have 2 days next week to bottle hunt and i'm trying to locate the area with the highest probability for bottles. Known coins that have come from this site; 1776 half reale, 2 capped bust dimes, several seated dimes. After next week my days of digging in the woods and shrubbery will be limited until next winter. I live in the south and we having 75 degree highs already.

 

[gleaner1]

If you can find the old foundations that have not been dug out, a bottle pit or dump is very very close by. Most of the time, a good ashy old bottle dump is within fifty feet of an old foundation, and many times there are bottle and trash pits right next to the foundation, say within ten feet.

 

[Bass]

Thanks, i will do a little probing as well.