1800s school outhouse+todays finds

diggerTmole

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679
Location
Illinois
The other day when getting permission to MD an 1800s school house the owner took me to the back property and showed me the old outhouse. Today I went back and asked if i could dig it out this spring. he said yes. :yes:

Will be my first outhouse dig I am excited to see whats there. This morning I was thinking that I might have a GOOD chance to find some old ink bottles in there!

I've got permission lined up to look around for the old outhouse at another 1800s school site...Im gonna just try with my MD I guess..long shot but who knows...

I went to check out a bottle dump the farmer told me about the other day. It is LOADED with stuff. It was used for awhile. It slants down a hill and its oldest on bottom to newest towards the top. To froze to dig but I got these cool beer trays towards the top.

What the trays should look like..
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Adv...572?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c1a4963c4

That's my new MD/bottle hunter buddy..My nephew
 

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You're on to something good there! Detect the snot out of the path the kids would have taken to get to the outhouse, and all around it. Of course you already know to sift all the dirt from the hole, it's probably loaded with Indian pennies and the like...
 
You're on to something good there! Detect the snot out of the path the kids would have taken to get to the outhouse, and all around it. Of course you already know to sift all the dirt from the hole, it's probably loaded with Indian pennies and the like...

another area to look for would be the driveway or pathway from the main road to where the schools' door was. check on your Plat maps and try to determine where the highest concentration of buildings (houses) had been, and that'll probably be the highest traveled path to/from the school. maybe even look for more direct routes from the school to those houses as there could easily have been shortcuts the kids would have taken to get home.
that site, the church and the surrounding area is certainly gonna keep you busy for a while! :shock:
lots of great potential there for sure! :yes:

Pete
 
Don't forget you can always pull up Google Earth and many times you can see the trails and worn paths through the area you are researching.. Good luck..
 
Similar to this I'd imagine.

on the bottom-ish side of the lake you'll see a white rectangular shape. Just to the right of that you see a light colored area. semi-sqaure/rectangular. going from the corner of that area you can see a faint line going to the water.

This is a manmade lake behind my house that was built there during the iron ore mining years and there used to be a pavillion there with log steps leading to the water. 300-500per day were there in the summers. right next to where the path to the water is where daughter and I found our 1877. Google maps can be a sweet place to find stuff.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=iron+...r=Iron+Mountain,+Dickinson,+Michigan&t=h&z=18
 
You might also...

Want to see if you can find the wells for them school houses as well...
Well...Well Well...

HH,
 
Similar to this I'd imagine.

on the bottom-ish side of the lake you'll see a white rectangular shape. Just to the right of that you see a light colored area. semi-sqaure/rectangular. going from the corner of that area you can see a faint line going to the water.

This is a manmade lake behind my house that was built there during the iron ore mining years and there used to be a pavillion there with log steps leading to the water. 300-500per day were there in the summers. right next to where the path to the water is where daughter and I found our 1877. Google maps can be a sweet place to find stuff.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=iron+...r=Iron+Mountain,+Dickinson,+Michigan&t=h&z=18



Thanks...looking for places similar to that by me (McHenry County, IL) but not seeing much...I have to narrow it down I suppose LOL
 
The other day when getting permission to MD an 1800s school house the owner took me to the back property and showed me the old outhouse. Today I went back and asked if i could dig it out this spring. he said yes. :yes:

Will be my first outhouse dig I am excited to see whats there. This morning I was thinking that I might have a GOOD chance to find some old ink bottles in there!


If they are like the outhouse digs the bottle collectors do in NYC you should find a lot of good bottles. Some of them are deep and you may need a 5 gallon bucket with a rope to pull up the dirt as you get deeper. Bring a sifter also and sift all the dirt, they find all kinds of stuff that way from clay pipes to old coins. Good Luck with the dig!
 
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