pa digger
Well-Known Member
EASTON PA DIG november 2002
It was a cool early morning in the spring of 2002. my digging partner gary had his eyes on this potential location to dig, the building was on the 1860 map and looked good with the big S emblems on the side, but there could be one potential problem with the site. The back yard was a paved parking lot, that was in poor condition with some spots being loose stone. gary knocked on the door for a permission. upon knocking on the door he was hopeing that he could probe where the loose stone was since there was a big dip there, and one other on the site that could be seen with ease. the owner told him that he was going to re pave the lot and that he could dig. Gary had probed 2 potential spots the 1st one with ease and the second one a little harder to probe. Gary had come back with 2 other local diggers on the weekend. The 2 spots were checked once more by gary and another experienced prober. The 1st spot felt better and was in a better location on the property. So the decision was made to dig a test hole in the 1st spot. Gary and the other 2 diggers spent the day getting nothing but old shards of yellow ware a few chamber pots and a couple of 1880 aqua meds. Gary wanted to come back and check the other spot but got no interest from the other 2 diggers. Me and gary were out probing a spot a few months later with no luck it was 6 am on a cold November morning. we had nothing lined up to dig and then i had remembered him telling me about a spot at the other end of town that he had been digging. one of the spots were dug put there was no interest in the other bigger impression on the lot as it felt to new. I thought you never know and wanted to check it out. So we had headed to the lot and re probed the impression and decided to dig a test hole. We were finding old spatter ware shards and 1890 stuff and were not sure with finding the 1890 things if it was worth it to continue. Since we had nothing better to do we kept going and going and going. The hole was getting bigger by the hour, and we were wondering if we could even dig this one out in a day with just the 2 of us, since the hole was 12 foot round and we were at the 7 foot mark and there was a 60% chance of a snow storm. We dug a little more, an hour or so and then it had started to snow. Gary had made a call to his dad (who taught us how to dig) to come down and look at the hole for his opinion since he had 35 years digging experience in the easton and reading areas. We knew he had the know how of these areas and in my opinion was and is a better digger then anyone else including us. Gary and myself knew the hole was big and going to be deeper then most in that area and that the 2 of us had not experienced such a size hole in this town of this magnatude before, and that his dad might have. We could see that the stone walls were laid very rough at the top but got much tighter and laid down very well at the 7 foot mark. This was very odd to the 2 of us as we had not seen this before. loose stone means to new in this area, but some spatter ware shards were found close to the top so we kept going and the stone got tighter which was a very very good sign of the age 1860's. Garys dad had showed up and was not to kean on some of the shards that we had found but knew that a few of them were the right age. Me and gary thought that the hole was 1860's but with the loose laid stone at the top that it might have been dipped out and used at a later time. Garys dad said that he had seen only a couple privies like this in the past but not very often and since the stone walls had got tight that it might be good. So with all this we had covered the hole with plywood and tarps till the next day as we knew, we did not have enough day light. It was also a good idea to bring more help 4 other guys and have a fresh start at it the next day. The next day we went back with help but it started to hail out, so we had to put up a tarp canopy over top of the hole to keep it dry. The hole went deeper and deeper and we hit the trash layer at 22 feet down. Things were looking good as we were getting aqua meds late 1880's a few chamber pots, and then a ip 8 sided blue seitz. Now things were getting real good as we kept pulling up bottles more aqua meds a number of tall blobs, pipes, a doll head with the glass eyes still inside. But no more ip sodas then a few more shovel fulls and we hit a pocket of 3 more blue 8 side seitz, a very rare yellow seitz tall blob. Then another spot packed with 2 blue seitz ip squats, 2 green ja seits ponys, a green 8 side seitz smooth base and more blue and green seits squats. All in all there were many buckets pulled but this dig paid off and we walked away with around 400 whole bottles. Yours, PA DIGGER
It was a cool early morning in the spring of 2002. my digging partner gary had his eyes on this potential location to dig, the building was on the 1860 map and looked good with the big S emblems on the side, but there could be one potential problem with the site. The back yard was a paved parking lot, that was in poor condition with some spots being loose stone. gary knocked on the door for a permission. upon knocking on the door he was hopeing that he could probe where the loose stone was since there was a big dip there, and one other on the site that could be seen with ease. the owner told him that he was going to re pave the lot and that he could dig. Gary had probed 2 potential spots the 1st one with ease and the second one a little harder to probe. Gary had come back with 2 other local diggers on the weekend. The 2 spots were checked once more by gary and another experienced prober. The 1st spot felt better and was in a better location on the property. So the decision was made to dig a test hole in the 1st spot. Gary and the other 2 diggers spent the day getting nothing but old shards of yellow ware a few chamber pots and a couple of 1880 aqua meds. Gary wanted to come back and check the other spot but got no interest from the other 2 diggers. Me and gary were out probing a spot a few months later with no luck it was 6 am on a cold November morning. we had nothing lined up to dig and then i had remembered him telling me about a spot at the other end of town that he had been digging. one of the spots were dug put there was no interest in the other bigger impression on the lot as it felt to new. I thought you never know and wanted to check it out. So we had headed to the lot and re probed the impression and decided to dig a test hole. We were finding old spatter ware shards and 1890 stuff and were not sure with finding the 1890 things if it was worth it to continue. Since we had nothing better to do we kept going and going and going. The hole was getting bigger by the hour, and we were wondering if we could even dig this one out in a day with just the 2 of us, since the hole was 12 foot round and we were at the 7 foot mark and there was a 60% chance of a snow storm. We dug a little more, an hour or so and then it had started to snow. Gary had made a call to his dad (who taught us how to dig) to come down and look at the hole for his opinion since he had 35 years digging experience in the easton and reading areas. We knew he had the know how of these areas and in my opinion was and is a better digger then anyone else including us. Gary and myself knew the hole was big and going to be deeper then most in that area and that the 2 of us had not experienced such a size hole in this town of this magnatude before, and that his dad might have. We could see that the stone walls were laid very rough at the top but got much tighter and laid down very well at the 7 foot mark. This was very odd to the 2 of us as we had not seen this before. loose stone means to new in this area, but some spatter ware shards were found close to the top so we kept going and the stone got tighter which was a very very good sign of the age 1860's. Garys dad had showed up and was not to kean on some of the shards that we had found but knew that a few of them were the right age. Me and gary thought that the hole was 1860's but with the loose laid stone at the top that it might have been dipped out and used at a later time. Garys dad said that he had seen only a couple privies like this in the past but not very often and since the stone walls had got tight that it might be good. So with all this we had covered the hole with plywood and tarps till the next day as we knew, we did not have enough day light. It was also a good idea to bring more help 4 other guys and have a fresh start at it the next day. The next day we went back with help but it started to hail out, so we had to put up a tarp canopy over top of the hole to keep it dry. The hole went deeper and deeper and we hit the trash layer at 22 feet down. Things were looking good as we were getting aqua meds late 1880's a few chamber pots, and then a ip 8 sided blue seitz. Now things were getting real good as we kept pulling up bottles more aqua meds a number of tall blobs, pipes, a doll head with the glass eyes still inside. But no more ip sodas then a few more shovel fulls and we hit a pocket of 3 more blue 8 side seitz, a very rare yellow seitz tall blob. Then another spot packed with 2 blue seitz ip squats, 2 green ja seits ponys, a green 8 side seitz smooth base and more blue and green seits squats. All in all there were many buckets pulled but this dig paid off and we walked away with around 400 whole bottles. Yours, PA DIGGER
]
