How To Locate A Privy

[RedGinger]

Gotcha. I would feel the same way. I don't like it when Joe gives me a bottle he dug while we were out, because even though it's generous, I didn't dig it. Ya know? Good luck on your dump dig.

 

[div2roty]

Thats a nice video. I'd love to see a longer one. I could use all the pointers possible. The ground here is pretty soft (not as soft as that spot), but a probe goes in pretty effortlessly. Its like that pretty much everywhere down here, so its not a case of the yards being filled in. Of course I am less than 10 miles from the coast.

 

[RICKJJ59W]

But is there ash on the end of your probe? or signs of a pit?

 

[div2roty]

I haven't probed enough yet. I have an idea where one privy would be on my parents property. There is a standing brick outhouse and if you walked in a straightline toward the house, about 30 feet closer to the house, the ground kind of dips.

When you say ash, do you mean actual ash as in burned up ashes? Other than probing at a slant and hiting the privy walls, or hitting actual glass/other trashs under ground, what other signs could there be?

But is there ash on the end of your probe? or signs of a pit?

 

[RICKJJ59W]

Anything other then (pure clay) when we see the tip with pure clay on it we keep moving.

 

[willong]

Nice video Rick. I notice in one of your replies that you mention the "crunch" feel or sound. I would add that sometimes one can actually feel or hear a "tink" when the probe tip actually contacts a bottle. I haven't done as much probing as you privy diggers, but when I used to locate a backwoods or rural dump, I would gently probe about to delineate the boundaries of the dump. I could definitely feel (and often hear) the crunch of decomposed old cans, and the tink of glass when I contacted a whole bottle. Backwoods dumps were often over an embankment or into a ravine; so, I always sought the lower boundary of the dump in order to avoid covering up bottles with overburden and spoils removed while excavating uphill.

Another note; I had a friend who used to probe the muck bottom of a marsh by Port Townsend, WA, while knee or even chest-deep in the water. There was no use layer, per se, he strictly located individual bottles by the "tink" sound. Are there any members out there who do the same in southern swamps, or even in Central America (such as in the Canal Zone)?

Do any forum members have success locating deep dumps and privy pits with metal detectors? I’ve located old mill sites and logging camps in Washington where I’ve been unable to locate the dumps. Other visible relics strewn about such as broken axe heads and saw blades, but an absence of glass and tin can residue, indicate that these are not sites that have been dug out or cleaned up—I suspect that subsequent earth-moving activity, even log yarding from two successive harvests, have covered over the dumpsites.* Water and wind erosion can also cover old dumps with drifted sand and mud flows. I’d like to get a metal detector for locating dump contents that could be anywhere from 2’ to 8’ down—any suggestions?

Will

* I’ve located a couple of old mill sites where waste cedar slabs trimmed off of shingle bolts have literally filled in small gullies—not having a backhoe to dig out an entire ravine, I’m wondering if a metal detector would determine if trash from the cookhouse was somewhere under that mess? Even after a hundred years, a probe will not penetrate such material.

 

[RedGinger]

Does there have to be ash? The trash in a privy wasn't always burned was it?

 

[daeldred]

Hey redginger, I suppose that there doesn't have to be ash, but I would probe doubly hard if you don't see any. The ash is not from the trash being burned per se. The people would throw the ashes from the coal/wood burning stoves in the dumps and privies. That is generally where the ash comes from. If you find some bottles that are deformed from heat, it's likely that they were mixed in with hot coals. All this to say, it's important to listen/feel for the crunch. If you are probing clay which is nice and smooth and then hit a spot that is crunchy at the same depth of the clay, take notice. All things being equal, the crunchy stuff you feel is man made. Which is good...real good.

 

[RedGinger]

Duh. Forgot about that! Thanks Daeldred. My excuse is I was half asleep when I asked that question lol. Last time I was trying to probe a privy there was nothing in the clay. It was VERY hard to dig. It turned out to not be the privy anyway, unless, I should have dug past the clay.

 

[daeldred]

Don't worry about Red, it happens to the best of us. Anywho...That's why, when we don't feel a good crunch layer, we'll move on. No doubt that they are privies, but there just isn't going to be much in it without a good cruch layer. If we can't find anything we might come back to it. I don't how the soil is where you are at, but here in the Mid South, we have a pretty consistent semi-hard clay floor (this clay is noticably harder but not hard. You can still push through it but it takes more strength) at about 4-5'. If our 6' probes go all the way to the handle and we still haven't felt a semi-hard clay bottom, we'll spend a little extra time at that spot. We have a 9' probe, too. Sometimes there can be a clay cap a few feet down in a privy, but should feel softer than a semi-hard natural clay bottom.