Probing began at 10:30 checking all the likely places for a privy to be located. The back yard had an asphalt parking lot centered directly behind the house leaving the perimeter open for probing. Dan and I probed every spot for about an hour to no avail. Dan decided to walk farther back on the property (around 100 feet) and probe some suspicious spots out there. He found a spot filled with red brick about 5 inches bellow the surface. He gave out the call, "come probe this spot, it feels pretty good". I snapped my head around and eagerly walked back to his proclamation. I pushed my probe into the ground and practically fell on my face as it effortlessly plummeted down to the handle. A test hole would have to be performed.
Out came the shovels and work began. After about 10 minutes of digging it was clear that this was a round brick well with a diameter of only 3 feet. No signs of glass were evident and if we were to dig it, the well would have to be dismantled brick by brick. "Lets fill it" Dan said in his u-per accent. We filled it and decided to move to another location.
On the way to the next site in a near by town we stopped at my house to pick up another camera. When we were getting back in the Laforza something in the back was missing....our shovels, we had never done that before. Yea right! As we were pulling back into the driveway of the Italianate I noticed a large depression in the asphalt of the parking lot in back. Remembering what I have read from some of the gurus, like Digger O'dell, I decided to walk over and probe though the cracks in this depression. The first probe told a story of an ancient privy that was once here.
The parking lot was in a state of disrepair and was to be resurfaced in the spring, so we decided to cut a 2X2 foot port hole in the asphalt to investigate this spot. It was soon apparent that this was a stone lined square privy. After a few shovel loads of dirt were excavated we hit a nice ash layer filled with decomposed cans and rust, sprinkled with bone fragments. Next was a nice familiar sound of solid glass fragments. The anticipation of what pieces were to come out for dating was too much. Would it be Aqua or clear, would it be a blown piece, would it have a pontiled bottom, what kind of top would it be.
The first signs were good, blown aqua pieces. Next came a new embossed prescription druggist to our collection! A little more scraping with the tool produced a large (whole) pontiled puff. I showed Dan the bottle and the dirt started flying. After careful consideration it was decided that we would leave our port hole at the surface and remove the material in the privy creating a subterranean room under this parking lot. The asphalt had enough structural integrity to act as a ceiling for us.*( PLEASE USE PROPER JUDGEMENT IN ATTEMPTING A SIMILIAR ACT )*
As we worked away in our new space, night was falling and it began to snow. The wind on the surface was brutal by now but we were snug as a bug in a rug in our new found home, complete with florescent lights. We extracted many bottles, most from the 1890's period. The age we had hoped for just wasn't there. We did find in the trash loaded use layer a nice salt glaze jug, bearing The inscription: CAIN & LANZ, DEALERS IN GROCERIES, CROCKERY, GLASSWARE, ETC. DUNDAS. There were no more pontiled pieces to be found. We did add a few more Druggists to our collection though.
The pit was obviously used from the 1860's to the turn of the century, being dipped frequently with the abundance of money they must of had. The pit was in itself a work of art, perfectly rectangular with perfectly positioned stones that had not moved an inch out of place in 130 years! Dimensions of the pit are: W5XL8XD6 in feet. We finished the project at 11:00 packing the last bit of dirt in the hole. This was not the most productive hole yet, but certainly was one of the most interesting.
This is Dan's take. Except for the milk.
