Privies found next to dismantled railroad track?

[kharrar]

Hi to all, this is my first post and I am very happy to have found this
group. Have never dug a privy but will soon!

Now live in Prescott AZ and have found an old town that used to be at the
intersection of a railroad line. The line has been removed and is now a public
trail. Hardly anyone ever uses it because it is very flat and not to senic.

Have found (5 or 6) 4x4 depressions about 20-30 feet from the track, they
are spaced only about 15 to 20 feet apart. From the looks of it the main mining
business/ post office / town store buildings were in this location. Unfortunately
there is a town dump about 200 feet away were I pulled out a broken SanFrancisco
Whiskey Merchant bottle amber flask 1880-90 from, the land is privately owned
and have ask the owner to dig and he said NO WAY!

The ground is very hard here and have not tryed to probe the ground yet. I was
thinking of welding up a spring steel probe with a removable slamming weight??
What do you think? Were all privies lined or if the dirt was firm enough did they
just take a chance it would not cave in?

My idea is to go real early in the morning just before sun up "sat or sun" and dig
one. Of course I will fill it back in and compact the soil, do any of you ever put
a plastic sign in the ones you have dug saying " privy has been dug" so no one
else in the future wastes there time?

Will take some pics and attach to this post soon. Thanks in advance for any help.

Karl

 

[IRISH]

Hi kharrar welcome to the bottle forum.
A lot of privies/dunny holes did just have unlined sides, also as they are that close to the track they may well be from a station as they would have had to dig a new one often they probably just dug a fast easey hole and put a movable outhouse over them, filled them up then dug a new one.

As for the probe, you would be best to use a normal one with a knob or ball on the end, a removable slamming weight will probably be hard to use and smash any bottles it hits. I would not bother with a dug sign, you will know the ones you have dug and if anyone else can't work it out they will get some digging practise [] . I do know a bloke who puts a coke bottle with a message in it at the bottom of some of the holes he digs [] .

 

[baltbottles]

Hi karl,

Sound like you have a good possabilty there. As for putting a sigh in the hole so other diggers will know its been dug. i like to but an old tire 3 or 4 feet down when filling in the hole if you stick a probe in and hit the rubber tire you know its been dug and to leave it alone and even if you miss it with your probe you will probably find it wit a test hole. However i do know some diggers that like to very carefully fill in there holes they will even try to recreate some kind of layering to fool future diggers. I kind of think this is stupid i figure with all the holes i dig it hard to keep track of what you have and have not dug and i bet in 20 or so years its going to really be hard to rember what i dug today. Considering only the really good holes stick out in memory the rest just kind of blurr together.

Chris

 

[Bluegrass]

Hey! Seems a bit cruel to leave these coke bottles at the very bottom! Adds insult to injury. Why not leave them a foot or so down? Don't think I'd be too grateful to find a coke bottle at the bottom of a 16 foot brick-liner! But then again, if I hadn't figured it out at the 10 foot level, perhaps I'd deserve it![]