Easy to ID, perhaps harder to date

MiddenMonster · Nov 25, 2006

Some of you may have had one of these as a kid. It's a bit hard to see, but in the lower left there are two levels of steps and the axle runs through them. Too bad it's so rusted, or it might be worth salvaging and restoring.

MiddenMonster · Nov 25, 2006

TreasureTales said:
Personally, I'd take the Red Caddy. The tricycle is cool, too bad it was left to rot. There are a few people who actually buy stuff like that to put in their yards, though I'm not sure why. So, were there any coins or relics around that trike?

None that were readily findable. It was in one of several junk yards, located in thick woods that are inaccessible to vehicles. There were a lot of old VW parts, including an engine block. There was a 1970s era microwave oven that ended up with a few .357 rounds in the door.

There were also a few old ovens, hot water heaters, refridgerators and a lot of rusted paint cans and general metal debris there. Someone went to a lot of trouble 30 or so years ago to haul this stuff into the woods. I'd love to detect on this property, but between the thick woods and rusted metal around it would be tough to pick a spot to start. This is the property where the well I want to excavate is located. The best spot to detect is around a foundation made up of individual stones that create a rectangle approximately 15'x20' and a line of stones lengthwise down the middle for joist support. There are also two 36" diameter trees (one standing, one on its side with intact rootball) within 60' of the foundation, but it lies just outside the property line where I have permission to hunt. It would be interesting to live up to my username and excavate the junkyards, but there is so much stuff on the surface mixed in with 30-50 years of tree limbs, fallen leaves and other stuff that it would be a major undertaking with no guarantee or even evidence of finding anything worthwhile. I would almost want to use a bulldozer to scrape the junk and 6" of soil before I started anything serious. The trike in the picture is wher it was found. I just leaned it up against the tree for a better picture. That's not my bullet hole in the front fender...

TreasureTales · Nov 25, 2006

I hear ya MiddenMonster! Those junk piles can be frustrating places. The last one I came across required LOTS of hard work, just to find a couple of coins from the 1970s. Occassionally I'll find something worth keeping, an older tool or a neat looking car part, but not much more. It's a shame people dumped stuff like that in a wooded area instead of hauling it to the dump. Now if it were an older site, say from the turn of the 20th century, then I'd be in there like a hound on a rabbit.

MiddenMonster · Nov 25, 2006

TreasureTales said:
I hear ya MiddenMonster! Those junk piles can be frustrating places. The last one I came across required LOTS of hard work, just to find a couple of coins from the 1970s. Occassionally I'll find something worth keeping, an older tool or a neat looking car part, but not much more. It's a shame people dumped stuff like that in a wooded area instead of hauling it to the dump. Now if it were an older site, say from the turn of the 20th century, then I'd be in there like a hound on a rabbit.

And one of the bummers is that it wouldn't be altogether illogical to surmise that the dumps date back 50, 60 or 100 years. Afterall, if the original inhabitants thought it was a good dump site, and if the general area was lived in continuously for 100-150 years then it makes sense that the same dump site could have been used from the beginning. The 1936 trike probably wasn't dumped in the 1930s, but it may have been there since the 1950s or 1960s. I also found an old Budweiser can with the old-style fliptop on top. The paint was still in good condition. The problem is getting rid of the worthless junk down to a level where it makes sense to seriously excavate. I'm not a bottle collector, but I bet that there are scores, if not hundreds of old bottles that are still intact somewhere below the real junk. I've been with people who are serios metal detectors, and I just don't have their patience. They will spend weeks working an area 20'x20', digging on every signal until they find the deepest piece of metal. If I knew I was in a "virgin" area I could do that. In an area where 9,999 signals out of 10,000 are junk I would give up in 30 minutes.

TreasureTales · Nov 25, 2006

Bottles can be valuable as well as interesting. You know what they say about one man's junk..... If you aren't interested in digging the area down to the older stuff, maybe some of your treasure hunting buddies would be interested in it. It would be a shame to let such a potential wealth of history (and money) deteriorate into the soil. OK, so you don't have a dozer at your disposal, but don't you have some bottle digging friends who would get to the bottom of the pile and let you detect the soil they bring up from the lower levels? I'm always trying to think of ways to get to treasure, and sometimes it requires a team effort with different team members being interested in different types of treasure. That way all team members have a chance to come away with something coveted. Out here there are not many dump sites left to examine. They've either been cleaned up, covered over, hauled off or fenced off. So I start to drool when I read about somebody who has found a site that holds some potential. Is there a bottle digging/collectors club in your area? Is there a metal detecting club that would help you clean off the junk on the top so that they, too, could detect the lower levels? It could be a good weekend project for a club. Just some ideas to ponder, because such sites are getting harder and harder to find. My motto: don't pass up a potential treasure site even if it looks crappy from the outset. Course, I've done lots of work, as I said previously, for very little return. But at least I know that I gave it a try and it won't always be nagging me in the back of my mind from now 'til kingdom come!!!

Montana Jim · Nov 25, 2006

I don't want to refocus your junkyard talk... but just a few more pics... these are originals or restorations by the same company of the trike you found (btw... That B&W photo you took was pretty cool).

http://www.tricyclefetish.com/manufacturers/JuniorToy.htm

A quote from the site: "The company's streamline tricycles, such as the Sky King model, are some of the most sought after tricycles today. Some of these early tricycles from the 30's are valued at over $2000."

TreasureTales · Nov 26, 2006

Montana Jim said:
I don't want to refocus your junkyard talk... but...

Montana Jim · Nov 26, 2006

TreasureTales... You two were sounding like my THing partner and I... He's looking for uniform buttons and I'm digging in a trash heap someplace! He'll walk past the rusty cans and I'm digging through them... we both still find great stuff!

MiddenMonster · Nov 26, 2006

TreasureTales said:
Bottles can be valuable as well as interesting. You know what they say about one man's junk.....

I know. I'm not of the "collector" mindset, though. People here will probably cringe, but if I were to dig through a junk pile and pull out 25 bottles they would most likely be lined up on a rail and being referred to as plinkers. I guess I have more of a treasure hunter/ancient artifact mindset.

If you aren't interested in digging the area down to the older stuff, maybe some of your treasure hunting buddies would be interested in it. It would be a shame to let such a potential wealth of history (and money) deteriorate into the soil. OK, so you don't have a dozer at your disposal, but don't you have some bottle digging friends who would get to the bottom of the pile and let you detect the soil they bring up from the lower levels?

Sorry if I might have misrepresented the scope of these piles. The junk appears to be scattered at ground level, not piled up like you would see in a landfill. That doesn't mean they don't go deep. It's on the side of a hill and in these woods the amount of soil, leaves, limbs, branches and brush would cover things up fairly quickly.

or fenced off. So I start to drool when I read about somebody who has found a site that holds some potential. Is there a bottle digging/collectors club in your area? Is there a metal detecting club that would help you clean off the junk on the top so that they, too, could detect the lower levels? It could be a good weekend project for a club. Just some ideas to

That's a logistical problem of its own. I don't live in this area. I have family and friends here that I occasionally visit. One of the biggest problems I have had in excavating the well is that it is tough to schedule people for mutually acceptable times and length of stay.