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ORIGINAL: donalddarneille

Hi Lordbud, thanks, we did find quite a few the other weekend, and what you see pictured is only the tip of the iceburg, we pulled over 300 bottles (almost none plain, ranging in age from 1870's-1890's) out of the ground that day from 4 privies on a single lot in close in S.E. Portland. Next week I've got a permission for a lot in a neighborhood very close to an old TODCo store.....I've bee dreaming about a hole full of Owls all week!

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ORIGINAL: cordilleran

Don:

Great haul from a small number of privies. Our Privy Posse here in Walla Walla will occasionally dig up an Oregon druggist bottle, but largely they are from other cities in Washington state. Did dig up a "Joseph M. Ricen Druggist & Chemist/315 First Street/Portland, Oregon" a few weeks back, however.

As for the legality of privy digging in Oregon state, we've heard wind that the general public is barred from digging holes and removing artifacts contained therein that are more than 75 years-old. Nevertheless, the law has yet to have a test case in the state. I suspect one will come along given the new interest by archaeologists in privies. From a legal standpoint, I would venture the issue would be complicated by the private domain standard whereby a landowner has, by governmental fiat, yielded some of his land-use rights to the state in the name of historical preservation. Further complicating this issue from a landowner's rights perspective is whether the collected artifacts were intended for personal hobby or commercial enterprise. Of course one way to circumvent arguments against privy digging in the state would be to secure a master's degree in archaeology with an emphasis in urban archaeology. Ideally, the most interesting case would involve a collector/papered archaeologist working under the auspices of a non-profit entity, one created specifically for the preservation of antiquities found in 19th century privy pits.