How to locate a bottle dump?

[Kiros32]

What should I look for when trying to locate a bottle dump on the property of a very old house that is pretty much guaranteed to have one? Where would it be in comparison to the house? What would it look like? A mound? Depression?

Thanks ahead of time!

 

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[SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS]

K,

could look like almost anything, or
nothing No help there for you
Sorry.

Use your detector. Bottle dump often has
metal items in it. Keep and eye out for
shards, (small pieces of glass). Often could
be on an edge of field, wood, away from main
house and outbuildings. May be on side of old
roads, (take the trash down the road and dump
it). Often found near dropoffs in the land.

Hell, no help, could be anywhere

have a good un.......
SHERMANVILLE

 

[Kiros32]

K,

could look like almost anything, or
nothing No help there for you
Sorry.

Use your detector. Bottle dump often has
metal items in it. Keep and eye out for
shards, (small pieces of glass). Often could
be on an edge of field, wood, away from main
house and outbuildings. May be on side of old
roads, (take the trash down the road and dump
it). Often found near dropoffs in the land.

Hell, no help, could be anywhere

have a good un.......
SHERMANVILLE

Thanks Sherman. Next question, once found, any specific technique for digging it? I read that sifting the soil from a dump could yield some good finds as well?

Thanks ahead of time.

 

[eagle77]

Around here I always look out to the sides and the rear of the house, it will be on/near the property line, outhouse or in a treeline. I found one farmhouse dump in a treeline 100 yds from the back door. On my property I located the old privy/dump by getting zinc penny signals (mason jar lids) on the property line. From old photos it was directly behind the house where the rear door was.

Digging is usually done very slow and shallow angles. At least it has worked for me...so far.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

They look very much like tin can or scrap iron dumps but are crunchier.

Most bottlers I know use a 6 ft probe made out of a steel rod with a "T" handle. Look along the edge of gullies (where it's easy to slough dirt over the garbage occasionally - they threw out more than bottles, you know). Or in swampy sections where the terrain prevents planting or pasturing of livestock. Dumps go where nothing else productive could.

 

[Skifisher]

Most dumps I have found have been in a ravine, on a hillside, or creek. Remeber to look for the outhouse, they were also used as trash cans. I use a small garden rake with three prongs on it to sloooowly and gently dig. Screening is a must for coins and other small goodies.

Many or most of the hillside dumps have been found allready, probing is the way to go. If it was a farm, they had a tractor to dig, so good chance of it being buried.

 

[TreasureTales]

Tools that many dump diggers use:

Spring steel probe, 4-6 feet
Good Leather Gloves
Garden rake (to pull bottles, etc. out of the pile without breaking the glass)
Sifting screen
Shovel to clear off the overburden (not recommended for use once the main body of the dump has been found), and for loading your sifting screen with soil
Metal Detector (to locate dumps in flat areas)
Bags or backpack for carrying the bottles, etc.

As already said, dumps can be just about anywhere. People would use a natural depression in their property far enough away from the house so that the flies and other pests wouldn't be a problem. They would sometimes burn the trash either before dumping it or after it went into the dump (to lessen the odor and to keep pests away, as well as to shrink the trash pile). They would also use a downhill slope for dumping, an old well, and old outhouse hole, and any number of other places that would not be an eyesore or a problem for the house.

Also, as said earlier by others, look for surface clues like broken glass and tin cans. Bottles will sink into the soil faster and farther than tin cans, so whenever you see cans on the surface, use the rake to scrape down several inches under them to see if bottles are there, too.

Sifting screens are almost as varied as dump locations. Some folks make them from old TV trays or cardtables. Others buy the professional ones offered on the internet. I've used a plastic soda pop crate (it had 1/2" holes throughout the bottom), a Garrett's classifier (used in gold recovery - it's about the size of a gold pan, but has holes in the bottom so the larger rocks can be separated from the soil), and a homemade screen composed of a 2x4 frame with 1/2" hardware wire nailed to the bottom. None of them were all that great, but they worked.

Dumps are lots of work, but can yield some fantastic treasures. It's surprising what got dumped years ago (often accidently) - coins, jewelry, marbles, tokens, bottles, steel beer cans, dishes, dolls, watches, canteens, kerosene lamps, and everything else imaginable.

If you find one, please post pix of what you get. It's always fun to see the stuff that dumps give up. Good luck!

 

[SpecialFarces]

Use Sanborn Maps, 1867-1970; these were insurance maps with incredible detail of many communities in the US. The maps will show long gone structures, like outhouses (ie: privies - where bottles were dumped). By going this route you can get intelligence on target rich locations near you. Save a lot of time too.

You have to buy the maps if you don't have access to them at an exceptional library, they are online at: http://sanborn.umi.com/

 

[jonnyrebel00]

i have found one and that was with my MDer. it was located in a tree line like noted below and when i started to excavate it i did it very slowly with a knife i used like a pic and a small shovel. everything worked out ok.

good luck