privy dig, are they really worth it,

[streakert]

so i have been working the cabin site all year and the finds are getting scarce, i do no where a privy was, the ground is depressed their is a lot of nails concentrated in that spot and i did dig a small copper door knob, what can i expect to find and how deep should i dig if i do decide to dig it,
thoughts & opinions please

 

[DFX DAVE in M.D.]

I am not a privy dig expert, I only dug one. You should get great advice here on T-Net or you can research other old post. It is worth it, if the hole has 1800's stuff or older in it for sure. If it was a privy from the 1950's it might not be worth the effort. It could be a trash burn pit ? Then it would be shallow. Don't dig it alone, some privy's have false bottoms, maybe tree brush was thrown in when it was filled in and it is holding up dirt that will cave in when you hit it with the shovel. Tie a rope to yourself and to a nearby tree to keep you from a possible freefall. You will have to fill a 5 gallon bucket with dirt and have somone pull it up with a rope. Most people use a chicken wire on a wooden stand to screen the dirt, you can find coins, buttons, marbles and anything else small. Do you know how old the cabin is ? If you dig it, keep us posted.

 

[DFX DAVE in M.D.]

I want to add, if it is a privy, it would be about 8 foot deep roughly, I was thinking of a well which could go much deeper, which is where you have to worry about false bottoms. Most old cabins are built near a natural spring coming out of the ground, which would eliminate it from being a well.

 

[streakert]

I want to add, if it is a privy, it would be about 8 foot deep roughly, I was thinking of a well which could go much deeper, which is where you have to worry about false bottoms. Most old cabins are built near a natural spring coming out of the ground, which would eliminate it from being a well.

Dave I no the cabin was originally built 1790s and added to in the early 1800s the age range of my finds here are from 1780s all the way up to the 1980s. During the last half of the 1900s it was a tenant house for the farm mgr.

 

[Frankn]

I have dug one. it was on my farm which is over 200 years old, but the outhouses were moved when full and the pit covered over. I imagine the area I dug was used for about 50 years or so. It was a waste of time. Mostly decomposed waste and lime which was a kind of light brown remainder. The outhouse and dump were always downhill from the spring or well. I really suspect most outhouses only contain human waste and lime. Most old places had a dump area that would be more productive. I found some silver spoons in mine. Frank

 

[DFX DAVE in M.D.]

Wow 1790's it sounds worth it for sure, you could hope to get early medicine, bitter and cure bottles. You have to hope they dumped a lot of trash in it when it got backfilled. It might not be the only privy, they might have dug others over the years when they got filled up. Privy digging is hit or miss, you might only find a handfull of goodies or hit a motherlode of treasure, you never know. I have been reading post by privy and well diggers for years now, some hit the a nice jackpot.

 

[streakert]

The bottle dump is on my list I found that as well and the surface finds dated to 1920 it is in the woods and I will dig into that when the foliage die back. The used a revine so it won't be a lot of digging for that

 

[DFX DAVE in M.D.]

Let me share my only privy dig story. My cousin use to live on this back road in Delaware and my Uncle and Aunt told me that this hole in the woods there would push up old bottles and junk during the rainy times. It got my gears turning, my cousin knew the people that moved in after they moved. He asked for mermission to dig it out and got it. We had the gear ready, we went right to the hole with shovels, 2 buckets and rope. We dug about 4 feet the first day, we even hit the wooden liner, I would have thought it was rotted. I hear in cities some privy's were brick lined. The second day we hit bottom at about 8 feet. It was not great results, we found a 1 Quart Fraims Dairy Wilminton DE. embossed milk bottle which I already had from being a common find. Parts of brass oil lamp tops, some kinds of doll parts, porcelin I think and lots of broken glass and a few unmarked plain medicine bottles. The finds were not worth it, but the experience of the hunt was. We had rakes the second day and backfilled the dirt and left.

 

[CincinnatiKid]

What Frankn states is the usual privy dig outcome. But, like detecting, ya never know til ya dig.
Dig it!
Peace

 

[Argentium]

There are some experienced privy diggers on this site -and from the posts I've seen, they score some righteous bottles and other artifacts .