The Boys are back in the Pits! A Cache of bottles!

jgas · Sep 28, 2010

Hello again from the Pits. Took a few hours off work today and took a couple friends digging with me. I am glad they went because we were digging a hole to China....I think :tongue3:

Started out where we left off the other day as we tunneled into another pit. Turned out fairly decent with my buddy grabbing up his first ever bottle! Wohoo...a keeper Milk bottle. Then Don jumped in the pit and snapped up a nice little ink. :thumbsup:

. I of course was having a blast watching them go back and forth with their bottle finds :laughing7:

Went on to finish that pit and then we started on the other 4 pits we hade probed the previous day. We thought we were jinxed or something because all we were finding were ash pits. >:(

Glad Don decided to hit one in the middle of the yard as it started to show some glass. 8) Now the game was on as we started popping out a few olive oil bottles and an occasional broken blob beer. Then we started snagging a bunch of Hutchinson soda bottles. Most were South Bend Soda and Mineral Water bottles. An Otto J. Zipperer showed up to play as well as a blob beer from Ohio I think. Then another Amber blob beer made me quite happy as the boys kicked me out of the pit for their turn. They soon were seeing bottles just hanging in the ash layers as seen in one of the pics. Then they were out and I was back in...I finally hooked onto a nice Insulator glass, my first non broken one.

We finished up with a big ole pile of glass. It was a fun day in the pits for sure and it was nice to have a new digger on board. The reward of seeing him excited about the history under foot was plenty of payoff for me. He took home a bunch of bottles for his bar and I have a few more to do history checks on to find where they were made and by whom. So again, it was a great day of digging and I have another new guy to learn the ropes tomorrow..I just hope he brings goodluck, cruddy clothes and gloves and I hope I can find him a decent pit to excavate!!! Goodluck out there and stay safe. Jgas :thumbsup:

pitdiggers · Oct 4, 2010

Wish you guys were here in VA. I could use some lessons on finding these privies on properties I metal detect on!

diggin jimmy hoffa · Oct 4, 2010

jgas said:
I have another new guy to learn the ropes tomorrow..I just hope he brings goodluck, cruddy clothes and gloves and I hope I can find him a decent pit to excavate!!! Goodluck out there and stay safe. Jgas

You gonna take Trent with ya'

I don't think that guy could last long in a pit he's just to spiffy clean :laughing7:

I've know him since we were kids. He grew up down the street from my relatives.

C'mon and get him dirty :laughing7:

BTW,
Great finds Jgas

DJH

Monty · Oct 4, 2010

Amazing finds, and I love the bottles. We dig so many historicaly significant artifacts and I wish every one could talk. Can you imagine the stories they would tell? Some have called your pit a privy but I notice you call it an ash pit. I know what a privy pit is but how would an ash pit be used? Thanks in advance, Monty

Lookn4Seated · Oct 4, 2010

Those are some great bottles, especially the Hutch's! :thumbsup:

jgas · Oct 4, 2010

Thanks guys, Monty, the ash pit is just a pit in the ground that people used to place basically nothing but ash from the furnace or wood burning stove. They would use the ash to throw on top of the actual pit to keep the smells at bay. Thus the layering you see in some of the pictures. Most of the time I find an ash pit right next to the actual outhouse pit. Ash pits are generally shallower than the privy pit.

DJH...I'm not sure when we will dig again but the more the merrier

You gotta get real dirty for he good stuff though :tongue3:

Pitdiggers: I wish I could come dig with ya, your privies would surely outdate the ones here in Indiana. I see a road trip in my future :icon_thumleft:

cwdigger · Oct 4, 2010

I have always wanted to dig a privey and have probed around alot of old homesites that I have but having no luck and not knowing really what I was doing gave up. Great Finds :thumbsup: