outhouses

[montanamuzik]

I have an oportunity to dig an old outhouse, old for MT at least. 100 years or so. I'm sure we have all read a lot of things on outhouses being good spots to detect but in all reality, has anyone here ever dug one personally? If so, any good results?

[Vegas2831]

Outhouses are a great source for finding old bottles still in tact.

[Irons]

I have never put anything useful down an outhouse.

[HarveyH48]

Considering some of the things that get flushed down the toilet, there may be some potential. Not sure if people 100 years ago would climb down there to recover a coin or ring that may have fallen in, but don't see me doing it. Not real sure I'd want to go there 100 years later either...

[Joves]

I do know someone posted about doing a septic tank and found something. But sa Vegas stated they were repositories for bottles many times. There could be coins as well that fell out of the pocket and went through the board slats. When you hit a bottle it is time to dig slower to get the intact ones. Depending on what you pull out some of them are worth a lot of money.

[007tallguy]

go on youtube and do a search for "privy digging" and you'll see some of the treasures people have dug up from the old o/h's. a lot of the items are bottles, but there's no reason why there wouldn't be coins and other goodies down there too.

[ct01r]

I dug out one on our farm; didn't find anything. I found out later that it was from the depression era and not old enough. (It had concrete for the base, that's how they could tell the age.) I think I know where the older one is, I'm going to try to probe for it next week if we get the rain that we're supposed to and the ground softens up a bit.
The key is SAFETY! I work for a utility, and used to be in a fire company. There is a LOT of instances where holes collapse on workers who didn't know what they were doing. Be careful, and there's a lot of data on the internet. Look up privy digging or outhouse diiging. Good luck! Curt

[imukdiver]

I have dug many outhouses . They are a great way to find bottles, dishes, and assorted crockery. They are lousy for finding metal stuff. For the most part buttons and coins are very eaten . Coins look more like blanks, and buttons quickly fall apart. I believe it is a result of the metal reacting with the other stuff.

[IMShooter]

100yr old outhouse should give you some nice items. Especially bottles. as Mukdiver said, most of the buttons and coins and such will most likely be worn down.

You should find some older items. Heck, it's 2012 and I'm finding 1870-1880 coins in my backyard and my house was built in '21...

You could always dig for the bottles and sift the dirt with a homemade sifter. 4 pieces of wood and some narrow holed hardware cloth/chicken wire and you're ready to fly.. just be careful of sharp objects and the like.

http://rickyglass.webs.com/

great privy digging site.

good luck!

[imukdiver]

Also if you like puzzles. Keep all of the shards of crockery, plates, and such. You would be surprised how many you can piece back together, I have reconstructed some really nice pieces. PLus if you take your time and do it right, the cracks are usually hardly noticeable. Make masking tape and elmers glue a best friend. Good luck

[IMShooter]

you have some glass patience mukdiver.

[imukdiver]

LOL.I actually have a few bottles in my collection that are glue backs. They are rare, expensive,or just hard to find. So I have at least an example until I dig or find a whole one. You would be surprised to at some of the very pretty crockery, and stoneware that you can find and repair. Again to buy whole examples would be out of my price range.

[IMShooter]

oh yah..some of the bottles people pull out of privy sites are worth tons. Poop gets expensive with age! amazing to see a bottle someone dug from a privy and it sells for 6k...

[carcur]

http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=99723

not an out house but still found some cool stuff