Plumbata
Well-Known Member
After many hours of hiking around a good number of inhospitable locations in the Columbus, OH area, I finally found what seems to be an old un-dug ash and bottle dump! I've spent many days worth of hours scouring the county for worthy spots over the past few years, but have never found any deposits large enough or old enough to get excited about... Until now! Thanks to my totem animal "The Groundhog", right before heading for the long hike back to the car (the gal is ill and needed me to get some Vick's) I managed to spot what looked darn well like a hutch sitting on the surface of the ground a little ways ahead. It was a strange, but auspicious and completely welcome sight! I forgot about my sickly gal for the time being (hehe, sorry babe) and went to investigate. Booyah! A complete "P. Schille Columbus, O." hutch. Even a non-local knows that they are common, but I won't complain! I began scouring up down left and right and saw other groundhog diggings with shards, old pottery, and plenty of ash clinkers all throughout the place. Woohoo, that's what I like to see! I managed to grab from the piles a Sharp & Dohme Baltimore" rectangular med and a nice cylindrical "Dr August Koenig's Hamburger Tropfen". With only light "exploratory" tools on me I had neither proper diggers nor time to sink a hole (let alone an ideal monster pit), but I did manage to tease out my first intact "Congress & Empire Spring Co. Saratoga, NY" water bottle! I also got a nice hutch from "Grant & Upton Columbus, Ohio" with monogram on back. I had hit ash less than a foot down so hopefully this place will provide lots of easy, high quality digging! Judging from the remoteness of the dump, plus the difficulty of access and a few other physical/environmental features I'd rather not reveal, I have reason to believe that it is un-dug, that it covers much ground, and is solid BIM. Broken blobs, meds, wax-sealer jars, and other good signs (and no crowns of any type, yet anyway) have me very pleased with the discovery. Even without leaf cover I am perfectly hidden, and when things do leaf-out I doubt anyone would ever find me there, even if I was dead and there was a statewide manhunt going on. Perfect place to sink big pits and do some seriously messy digging! [] 'Bout damn time I found a TOC (or older) dump in the Columbus area that hasn't already been pounded. [8D]
Now I gotta get back there with all my actually useful diggin' gear and start tearing it to shreds! [] Good luck everybody!