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Here’s an interesting story:As many of you may have seen, I was recently digging in an outhouse dating to the 1860s. Nea...
01/09/2025

Here’s an interesting story:

As many of you may have seen, I was recently digging in an outhouse dating to the 1860s. Near the bottom layer, I located these c. 1865-1870 Pikes Peak Historical Flask pieces. Interestingly enough, the first two pieces were in one corner of the hole, while the top was in another corner. The other pieces were completely missing.

But why would part of the bottle be missing?

It’s likely that sometime after the 1860s, the pit was cleaned out by a “honey dipper” usually a disadvantaged or special needs citizen that was hired for a fee to clean out outhouses to free up more space. The lack of finds and extreme number of partial bottles indicates that this was probably the case.

When this bottle was thrown down, it was probably on one piece. If you swipe, you can see the bottle in all its phases from discovery to now!

I recently dug this Mrs. Winslows Soothing Syrup bottle from a late 1860s outhouse. This product is notorious because it...
26/08/2025

I recently dug this Mrs. Winslows Soothing Syrup bottle from a late 1860s outhouse.

This product is notorious because it had an insane fatality rate among children.

It was recommended for use in large doses to help fussy babies sleep and contained high levels of morphine and alcohol. Small portions were enough to be fatal for a child…

Quite a sad bottle to find!

This weekend I was blessed with the opportunity to dig this incredible 1850s iron pontiled cobalt blob soda. I went out ...
25/08/2025

This weekend I was blessed with the opportunity to dig this incredible 1850s iron pontiled cobalt blob soda. I went out on a dig with a veteran privy digger in a new area and we got on some great stuff! Privies are very hard to find in Massachusetts so I’ve been waiting to finally get into one! Swipe for cleaned up pictures and the video of it coming out!

Here is a beautiful circa 1870s cap gun that I discovered in an outhouse dating to 1872. Cap guns weren’t commonly used ...
25/08/2025

Here is a beautiful circa 1870s cap gun that I discovered in an outhouse dating to 1872. Cap guns weren’t commonly used until the late 1860s, making this patent 1873 cap gun a fascinating example of 19th century toy history!

11/08/2025

Follow along as we dig the original stone lined outhouse for a waterfront mansion built in 1856!

Check out this collection of finds from a circa 1850 outhouse dig! I was beyond excited to uncover a cobalt pontiled sod...
11/08/2025

Check out this collection of finds from a circa 1850 outhouse dig! I was beyond excited to uncover a cobalt pontiled soda bottle, some stunning china shards, and a variety of other pontiled pieces. I’ll post more of the finds soon!

Featured in one of my latest videos, here’s a beautiful 1860s stoneware ink bottle that I pulled from the bottom of a st...
11/08/2025

Featured in one of my latest videos, here’s a beautiful 1860s stoneware ink bottle that I pulled from the bottom of a stone lined outhouse. As you can see this pit was quite wet!

Here’s a pocket of bottles in the use layer of a late 1860s privy I dug today. This privy was one of the earliest in tow...
09/08/2025

Here’s a pocket of bottles in the use layer of a late 1860s privy I dug today. This privy was one of the earliest in town, as the town I was digging in was only platted in 1865! Stay tuned for upcoming videos!

Here’s the story of the Wild West’s oldest ghost town!About a week ago, I had the opportunity to explore what might be o...
06/08/2025

Here’s the story of the Wild West’s oldest ghost town!

About a week ago, I had the opportunity to explore what might be one of the earliest deserted towns on the West Coast.

Here’s the story:

This town was founded in 1860, right after silver was discovered in the surrounding mountains. By 1861, a rush of prospectors and settlers had moved in, building cabins, mills, and saloons practically overnight. At its peak, around 500 people were living and working here.

In 1861, during what was known as the Paiute War, settlers in the area were attacked by Native Americans. Nine men from the town were killed in an ambush while trying to transport goods. It changed the course of the area’s development, and mining slowed down as tensions rose between settlers and the local tribes.

After a peace treaty was signed, residents returned to the town, and a post office opened in 1862. Unfortunately, the ore wasn’t as rich as people had hoped, and the cost of hauling it out of the mountains was just too high. By 1869, the post office shut down, and the town was left as one of the West Coast’s first ghost towns.

Today, a surprising number of ruins are still scattered across the canyon. Hundreds of stone foundations remain, with several walls still standing!

Here is a beautiful c. 1860s Pikes Peak historical flask I dug recently! According to the Federation of Historical Bottl...
06/08/2025

Here is a beautiful c. 1860s Pikes Peak historical flask I dug recently!

According to the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors: “The Pike’s Peak historical flask commemorates the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush, which was the boom in gold prospecting and mining in the Pike’s Peak Country of western Kansas Territory and southwestern Nebraska Territory of the United States. The rush began in July 1858 and lasted until roughly the creation of the Colorado Territory on February 28, 1861.”

It would have contained whiskey, which was clearly consumed in large quantities by this household because of the vast number of whiskey glasses found in the hole along with this flask!

The outhouse was stone lined and about 8 feet deep. Unfortunately it was dipped out except for a few small whole bottles…

Here is the incredible story of a Minnesota pioneer and these artifacts!In 2021 I received permission to metal detect a ...
26/07/2025

Here is the incredible story of a Minnesota pioneer and these artifacts!

In 2021 I received permission to metal detect a farm field in southern Minnesota. I knew there was a cabin dating to the territorial days of Minnesota (pre 1857), but I had little other info. I was shocked to discover a large cent dating to 1855, a civil war button and several early 19th century flat buttons.

Intrigued by my initial finds, I headed back to the site multiple times, finding a shingling axe head, and several other coins dating to the 1860s. I also found 1860s blob soda shards from Hastings, Minnesota all over the surface but unfortunately the farmer had recently dug a trench for an electrical line directly through where the outhouses stood, destroying the outhouses and likely hundreds of bottles and other artifacts in the process.

Upon further research of the site, I discovered a fascinating story about an early pioneer of Minnesota. Here it is:

Born in New York in 1826, William H. Cox moved to Marshan Township, Minnesota in 1855. He laid claim to 155.5 acres of land where he built a cabin. The rest of his land was farmed. With him lived his wife Maria Cox (born 1831 in New York), his daughter Emma (born 1853 in Michigan) and a baby girl born on the farm in Minnesota. His father Richard Cox (Born 1802 New York) lived on a nearby farm. Active in his community, William served as an officer for the school board of the one room schoolhouse just down the road from his farm, and as a township board member and tax collector for Marshan in 1861. On August 17th 1864, Cox enrolled in Company F of Hatch’s Independent Cavalry battalion, a unit made up entirely of Dakota County residents. Company F mustered into service September 1st 1864. Company F served frontier duty to protect North Dakota and surrounding areas during the Indian Wars. Entering as a Private, Cox mustered out as a Commissary Sergeant, and was discharged with his company April 26th 1866.

It seems sometime in the 1870s the farm was abandoned, but the artifacts I found tell a fascinating story of an early Minnesota pioneer. Today the cabin site sits at a lonely intersection in rural Marshan Township, Minnesota.

These artifacts were found in a late 1850s to mid 1860s outhouse in rural Minnesota. All were found by screening the con...
12/05/2024

These artifacts were found in a late 1850s to mid 1860s outhouse in rural Minnesota. All were found by screening the contents of the dirt. The coin is a two cent piece dating from 1864!

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