AUG 8th Results

AUG 8th Digging Results

"HELLO OUT THERE"! Boy it is good to be back. I have been busy keeping the midwest supplied with (air freight) auto parts for the past three weeks straight. We have still managed to dig every Sunday and have dug close to 12 pits since our last story, 3 in each yard. This dig was in a secret location with a friend of Dans (Rowan) that he met a few years back on a job site. Rowan graciously invited us to dig with him on a site he found. It is a ghost town of sorts that has privy pits all over the place conveniently marked with depressions in the ground. There is no need for a probe there! Our site was the center of a business district over 120 years ago. The town unfortunately burned to the ground early in the turn of the century and was never rebuilt leaving remnants of early blown glass pieces right on the surface.

CUTTING THE SOD

With the friendly cooperation of the township supervisor, we were able to dig one of the many pits in this childrens playground as long as we guaranteed proper reconstruction of our dig sites. The first pit turned out some nice pieces of early glass, like this German stoneware mineral water.

THIS THING IS HEAVY!

These pits where in pure sugar-like sand.

Rowan was down in the hole when we heard him say "Looks like a good one coming out", it took about 15 minutes to pull this one out because it was wrapped up in roots like you've never seen.

SLOWLY BUT SURELY!

This was a REED'S 1878 TONIC in amber with a crude applied lip. The next one was a local beer just sticking out of the wall on the side.

This hole produced about 30 bottles with a few keepers. We gave most away and moved across the street to dig on the site of an 1800's saloon. After opening up the hole it was obvious that this was a tavern. It was full of heavy broken beer mugs, wine bottles, beer bottles, bitters, tonics, shot glasses, and ale bottles. There were no medicines or house bottles at all. Then out of the blue we heard Rowan again, "Wow, looks good!". He pulled out another REED'S 1878 TONIC from this hole. They must have really liked that stuff in this town!

Well a few more minutes of digging and bam, it happend again, but this time it was different. A bright sun yellow REED'S 1878 TONIC.

These pits were definatetly a change from the types we are used to digging. Thanks to Rowan, the township supervisor, and the people of this nice small town, we were able to retrieve some artifacts of the past for the township museum, and ourselves.

With the friendly cooperation of the township supervisor, we were able to dig one of the many pits in this childrens playground as long as we guaranteed proper reconstruction of our dig sites. The first pit turned out some nice pieces of early glass, like this German stoneware mineral water.

OH, here are two pics from the week before. That is a terracotta pipe! See ya Scott. geovisit();<img src="http://visit.webhosting.yahoo.com/visit.gif?us1228469285" alt="setstats" border="0" width="1" height="1">

OH, here are two pics from the week before. That is a terracotta pipe!
See ya Scott.