Suprise dump

[JGill]

Hey all...I haven't been on for a while but a couple of days ago on my site job I stumbled on an old dump where I least expected it and went out last Sunday with my digging buddy and had a ball. Haven't dug anything for almost a year so this was really fun. This job site is located on an old farm near D.C. They are going to build houses on the whole site. When I first got on this site back in Feb. I look all over for a dump but no luck. The area where I did find it finally was in a undisturbed area or so I thought. The contractor moved off five feet of virgin soil and the building pad for the house was on grade. Normally this pad would not be disturbed again until the builder came in to dig out for the house basement. Anyway I just happened to be walking by where the dozer was doing the finish grading and glanced down a saw a small shard of glass. Picked it up and saw a bubble. So I asked the foreman to have the backhoe operator come over and scratch around. He didn't really want to but I finally talked him into doing it first thing the next morning before the job got started. The first scoop just took off about two feet of hard clay but the second bucket pulled up paydirt. I pulled out a buch of bottles and later had the hoe operator expand the hold and spread out the contents in as thin a layer as possible. I then left everything untill the following sunday so I could take my digging buddy out with me. We found a lot of good sutff along with a lot of crap but man what fun. Here are some pictures and I'll update my best finds later. Enjoy

 

[JGill]

Sorry everybody this has been my problem for months. Working so late and never having time to get on and post. It's 8PM and I'm having trouble with my pcitures. Will have to wait till tomorrow. I get up a 3AM so I got to get going for now. I will be back.

Jerry

 

[VTdigger]

Sounds like a good time, I always love surprise dumps. glad you got to dig it before they put a house over it.

 

[Alaska]

could you use any help? if they are going to build on top of it, you have to get as much out as possible!


i live in newport news, and wouldnt mind the drive.. and am not greedy!

Tom

 

[towhead]

I luv stories like this! Can't wait to see the pix! -Julie

 

[JGill]

OK here are the photos I promised: this first one was the very first time I had the back hoe dig in

 

[JGill]

I was hard pressed not to open up the whole area but I knew I wouldn't have time to dig so I had them recover the hole here is what I saw right away

 

[JGill]

Here is what I pulled out the first time

 

[JGill]

So went back on Saturday to work and right before we left I had the hoe operator open up as much as possible and spread it around the hole. Here is my friend and digging buddy early on Sunday morning starting to dig

 

[JGill]

Most of the old bottles were embedded in a really hard clay that was not typical of the soils on this site. Easy to miss bottles because they look like this