I dig antiques and collectibles

[Arob]

Dumpdiggers (http://dumpdiggers.blogspot.com) chronicles the adventures of a low tech treasure hunter that researches and recovers historically valuable antiques and collectibles from forgotten heritage sites all over Canada and the United States.

Every mom with a shovel and some passion for local history can set about finding the century old latrine sites that earlier settlers used and wherein they discarded all manner of very collectible glassware and pottery, dolls heads, toys and tools, pipes, buttons, etc this stuff is worth more and more money everyday.

Be sure and keep an eye on which collectibles appear in the new Micheal Gondry film Be Kind Rewind (http://www.alliancefilms.com/bekindrewind/)

[Java]

Not only there but in the far reaches of the backwoods too are many treasures still hidden. A trusty probe and a metal detector can help, and you know you've hit paydirt when you find old horse shoes and glass but no tire rims or plastic :) ...except lately I just take photos of the stuff and make notes and then cover it back up again assuming I do any actual digging (which I haven't done in ages now). Nowadays I just probe, make notes, and photograph the areas. To the experienced eyes, old pack mule trails, trading paths, the sites of old dirt roads and railway beds where the rails had long since been pulled up can be found in the topography of the landscapes especially during the winter months when the foliage is down. Following these topographic trails set down by history's past can lead to all sorts of interesting discoveries along the way and become like a gold mine for historical revelations too. That's one reason I leave everything where it was found and just take photos. Someday the real archaeologists may become interested in some of these places and the less distrubance there is, the better it is for unraveling the mysteries of the past still hidden up.

[Arob]

Tell me though, are there any local mysteries in which your well documented sites could yield clues?? Are there any stories just eating away at you? If you were younger... would you be digging?

[Java]

There is an old stone-line cistern located in the far reaches of the backcountry woods... and no, I would not be digging at any age there, but probing to map out the subsurface topography and taking plenty of photos, yes! :)

[Java]

Now if I could locate an old town dump (ca. 1800's to early 1900's) that hasn't already been dug through many times over, or a remote ravine filled in with similar age artifacts all junked in there together in which case would be of much less value to a real archaeologist, I would be digging there (with permission) in a heartbeat :)

...but alas, in my area all the good sites have been dug out decades ago at least and what wasn't dug out has been bulldozed and paved over by rapid development over the last few decades :noway:

[DoubleEdgeSword]

When I was in the desert southwest a few years ago, I ran across a man and his wife who had excavated a dump from that era. They had just tons of artifacts from the area near Tombstone, Az. Amazing stuff. I spent hours wandering around their makeshift exhibits. It really gives one a sense of what life must have been like in the Old West at the turn of the Century. Fascinating!

[Java]

Who knows what buried treasures from the past lay hidden within the murky depths of old abandoned mineshafts from centuries past? Many small communities which sprung up around such places (or the remnants of larger ones after the mines shut down) often used abandoned mineshafts to dispose of their refuge. The problem is in these cases is there is no safe way to recover any of those items, none at all, and anyone attempting to do so would be placing their life in about as much risk as going off into battle without any weapons. And besides, at least in my area most if not all these old mine sites have either been bulldozed over and/or built upon without any regard for what potential problems may lurk in the future when/if huge underground caverns should collapse (look up Mine Subsidence on Google) as most of these old mines have no records left of how deep or where all the shafts, drifts, and stopes may be. Only now is the proper technology beginning to be used (ground penetrating radar, ect.) to locate potentially hazardous areas before developers can build (or not build as the case may be) upon such sites, although there are many now which have already been built upon and some places already having reported some disasterous consequences.

[Arob]

Are you referring to the Haunted Gold Mine on Lake of the Woods (http://dumpdiggers.blogspot.com/2007/08/haunted-gold-mine.html)?