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All Forums >> [Bottle Forums] >> Digging and Finding >> Alabama Outhouses

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Alabama Outhouses - 3/12/2004 9:45:30 PM    BottleDig1   Posts: 55 Joined: 3/10/2004 From: North Alabama Status: offline Hello, Fellow Bottlediggers; First, I want to thank everyone for their answers to my other questions. Second I have two more questions for you if you don't mind me asking. First question: How big were outhouse pits in north Alabama? About 3'x3'x10'? (my guess) Thankfully, I don't know much about outhouses! Second Question: Where would the Outhouse usually be located? The place I'm wanting to search is a mid to late 1800's house located at the end of a road. It was near a small town and had two other houses pretty close to it. I have a map I drew on the computer if you need it. Any info will be greatly appreciated! Thank You, ________________ BottleDig1 Post #: 1

RE: Alabama Outhouses - 3/12/2004 11:33:46 PM    BottleDig1   Posts: 55 Joined: 3/10/2004 From: North Alabama Status: offline Here's the map to help you out. I've tried every lead I have, but no indication of the outhouse site. I am posting this because I need some expert opinions as to where the privy might have been located. (I'm a dumb amateur )I need to narrow down my search area so my probing will be more likely to succeed. (The ground in this area is clay, [hard as a rock] and capped off with thick pasture grass.) Extensive probing through that stuff is hard labor. Here's the legend for my maps: *The first map is an educated guess on how this area i'm searching would have looked in the early 1900's and the second map is how it looks today. North is to the right on both maps. The red buildings on map 1 is the home to which the outhouse in question belongs. The green buildings on both maps are neighbors houses, The grey buildings on map 2 are new neighbors' houses. The Red box on map 2 is the ground that was graded off and used to fill in the large ditch, while the bright purple box is ground which has been altered since the early 1900's. The small black arrows on the maps show the direction of a downward slope. (On map 1 it's an educated guess, of course.) The locations of the red buildings are are not exact, but are very close. Also, the maps are not in any particular scale, but are in direct proportion to each other. I will try to answer any questions you have! ---------------------------------------------- Any information will be GREATLY appreciated! Thank you, ______________________ BottleDig(Amateur!)1 P.S. I apologize for the poor upload quality. (My upload system is screwed up. ) Attachment (1) (in reply to BottleDig1) Post #: 2

RE: Alabama Outhouses - 3/13/2004 1:03:39 AM    Harry Pristis   Posts: 495 Joined: 7/24/2003 From: Northcentral Florida Status: offline Hello, Dig1 . . . No one is going to give you specific answers here -- there is no hard-and-fast rule to siting a privy or burn pit on a homestead. You just didn't put 'em near your cistern or well. You put 'em far enough away from your own house (and the neighbors') so that the residents weren't offended. I can tell you that the rule of thumb here in Florida is "Twenty paces from the original back-door." Try using a compass on your map above to make 180-degree arcs at 15 paces and at 25 paces from several places that you believe to be the back wall of the original house. All the area between the several arcs at 15 and 25 paces is where you want to target your metal-detecting and probing. You can do this probing on the day after a good rain. Do it methodically. Good luck! ----------Harry Pristis _____________________________ ______________________________________________ Visit The Demijohn Page at: http://members.aol.com/pristis/index.html (in reply to BottleDig1) Post #: 3

RE: Alabama Outhouses - 3/14/2004 12:07:34 AM    BottleDig1   Posts: 55 Joined: 3/10/2004 From: North Alabama Status: offline That's a great idea! Thanks, Harry. ______________________ Bottle(DumbAmateur)Dig1 (in reply to BottleDig1) Post #: 4

RE: Alabama Outhouses - 3/17/2004 9:59:13 PM    maineahh62   Posts: 108 Joined: 3/13/2004 From: Maine Status: offline hello bottledig1, i am reading a book called big house,little house,back house, barn, by thomas c. hubka, , it refer's to the back house being the privy, on your map, lower right, it might be worth checking the inside of the house, shed combo area, it also say's the outhouse is almost alway's located on the north side of the back building's or ell nearest the barn, to some old timer's the term back house is used only for the privy,of course this book is about new england farm house's but i hope some of this help's, happy digging < Message edited by maineahh62 -- 4/5/2004 11:08:31 PM > _____________________________ Timothy McKinnon (in reply to BottleDig1) Post #: 5

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