Lunar eclipse privy dig...with lights

Hey all,
I had probed the area days before. This was at my friend's plantation, first built in 1730, and sits on 390+ acres. Saturday, in the early afternoon before setting up to dig, I popped up a test hole to see the area that everyone thought was a privy to dig. Well, it wasn't a privy at all. It was a depression where a tree once stood. Then I moved on to probe other areas. I probed many depressions and came up empty. We went inside and studied two old photos of the house for almost an hour, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and I headed out to probe again. Five minutes later, and it was close to four o'clock by then, I found a privy. I dug a test hole which turned up older pieces of black glass onions and some 19th century glass. Something didn't seem right, but with everyone watching me, I started slinging soil. Well this took a lot longer than it should have, but with lights and a lunar eclipse going on, I kept digging. I started off by finding a SCA Carter's cone ink. Now keep in mind, every bottle found was raced into the house for a rinse off. I dug up some other 20's bottles, but at this point I felt that this was a waste of time and wanted to find the older privies. I kept digging though and by myself, but I always had an audience. After I made it through the one foot thick barrier of bricks, I reached the "use layer". It turned out to be a wood lined 1920's privy. The great bottles were not in this hole, but I did dig my first blue poison, after all the digging I've done in the past. Now I must find the site where the fill dirt was placed on top of this pit. It contained the older shards, almost 200 years older.

The best part about this privy was that the homeowners (good friends of ours) got to see what I'm going to be doing at their house in the coming months. Their kids loved looking through the dirt for marbles and other items. They also got to keep many bottles that are beautiful, but for me I'm looking for the older ones. My main point here is that they were very excited with the whole experience, and this, I feel, should matter the most.

The very best part of this dig was that I gained a few more permissions. One farm is from the 1700s and another is from the early 1800s. I still have tons to dig at the plantation though. Arrrrrrrrrrr! More stories to come I'm sure.

Lunar eclipse privy dig...picture

Here's a picture of the dig.

Hi Meech... I'm used to digging town privies which are pretty easy to locate. Seeing that you know a bit about country digging, could you give me any advice? Are the privies and their locations any different? The houses I will be digging are circa 1830-40. They're old 2 story Kentucky farmhouses.

Thanks... and I hope you found the older privies on the plantation[]

John.

Hi Bluegrass and Welcome to the forum,
The key to rural privy locating is to do as much research as possible.

We, the homeowner and I, have been gathering info for his plantation for years, no kidding. Clues, such as shards, bricks, etc., can be very helpful. Vegetation is also very important. We are currently probing an area that has many fragrant colonial lemon bushes. They are now tree size and have 1 inch thorns. Some privies tend to be quite shallow. Although, this plantation had many slaves, and probably had dug a few of these holes-privies. Climate can be a factor as well. Meaning, the distance from the house to the privy can vary too. Restrictions in rural areas were few, if there were any at all. This type of privy digging is very frustrating, so don't give up.

Unrelated to your question - I took a break from probing the last time out there and went metal detecting in the fields far from the house and found a 1830 Large cent. I've owned my detector for many years, but I've only used it less than ten times. I thought it was a pretty neat find for a bottle digger.

I have been trying to post this reply for over three hours now. My ISP has cut me off several times. Arrrrr!!!

Thanks for the reply... I've been probing an 1830 rural hotel which seems to still have its original lot. It's in Ky and there seems to be a lot of naturally occuring limestone at 3-4 feet. I've found some shallow pits but all of the stuff in them is smashed to tiny bits and there are no seeds. Found an 1867 shield nickel and lots of broken pontil bases...that's it! I wonder if they even would have bothered to bust through the limestone for a deeper privy? I doubt it. The place was cooking between 1840-60 and there should be a lot of stuff here somewhere. Probing is rough because of the limestone. I plan to get a metal detector soon (just need the cash).

Take care, John.

I've heard the same thing and I'm sure it's true with smaller farms with poorer owners. I just can't imagine some rich farmer not having quite a bit of the stuff town folk had. If you find a decent sized, two storey brick farmhouse, why wouldn't they have built a nice brick-lined privy out back? I've heard of some decent country digs. I just think you have to focus on the wealthier ones.

Good luck, John.