A Strange Sink Hole Opening by a Creek Leads to the Find of a Lifetime from the 1880s
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- čas přidán 29. 03. 2024
- Tom Askjem excavates a set of privies at the former Wentzel farmstead, in Polk County, Minnesota.
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Where do we get our probe rods?
Go to the website below, and scroll down. There is a weird probe with a wide tip and the top of the page. IT’S NOT THAT PROBE. The standard starter probe is a 4 foot rod with a small welding bead at the end. This is not a paid promotion.
oldwestbottles.com/probes.php
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You can go to the library of congress website and type in “sunburn map” or “plat map” and then the name of the town or city. Most town maps from across the U.S. are not on the site, so there is no guarantee, and they can sometimes be hard to find. You can also try the same keyword search in your state archives website, which will likely produce better results (especially for smaller towns).
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#antiques #mudlarking #archeology #bottledigging #history#unintentionalasmr,#antiquebottles #bottles #dumpdigging #privydigging #southdakota #treasurehunting #oldbottles #metaldetecting #ghosttown #northdakota #vintage #vintagebottles #abandoned #old #stagecoach #adventure #mudlarker #mudlark #wildwestgold #wildwest #buried #buriedtreasure
I am envious of your bottle digging. I dug a vacant lot in Leesburg, Fl that belonged to a 1880 Lumber Baron. My best finds were several Warner Safe bottles. The late Roy Singer said normally a digger may find one and we dug 8. His prized finds were two pottery jugs that were in perfect condition. Normally these were found broken. The Baron was wealthy, jugs were emptied and discarded. I found a couple pharmacies bottles and presented them to the local historical society. They had photographs of the pharmacies and I donated two bottles for those two photos. You’d thought I handed them 2 bars of gold. I did that dig when in my 30’s, now I am in my 70’s and crippled. Keep doing those videos, love them.
I’m envious of the lovely earth, wish my garden was as good.
You know you can buy manure from farmers or topsoil from Home Depot - maybe the channel owner could sell the byproduct of his hobby for some Gs - or go looking for old lost privy holes -
Living in the city we had a little patch of dirt for a yard - some friends and I wanted to see how far we could dig but at about waist - ribs level came upon a layer of glass - dont know how far down this went - nothing but broken glass and a few intact bottles, plates and anything made from glass, ceramics, pottery - I never in my life thought it might be a privy hole - I thought the neighborhood might be on top of an old rubbish tip w the only thing surviving decomp being glass - watching this channel gives me an appreciation for history - hope he pulls out an old forgotten Oak Island type treasure one day - heard privy holes were a common hiding place but maybe that secrets been figured out centuries ago
thank you for donating to the historical society. I don't dig up antiques lol, I just buy . I plan on donating most of my antiques if not all to historical society in my will.
Incredible! This is what "television" should have been instead of wall to wall commercials with garbage in between.
you mean lies don't you?!!!!
The REAL that should be in “reality” TV instead of just the ITY ( little , tiny ) almost nothing TV
I would like to thank you for the presentation of information, in the frame of your discovery, displayed long enough to read, and then look at the artifact. Your channel should be the gold standard for all the others.
Agreed!
Maybe a fire/trash pit
If they only knew in a 100 yrs someone would be digging up their privey pit.😊
My mom grew up just a couple hours drive away from this site. I would love to go dig up their refuse pit. I'd be willing to bed I would find the French Doors she took down and tossed as a pre-teen. 😆
How did it smell in that pit?
These pits had the most variety of any other pit I've seen you dig, and with the most intact glassware of any other pit too. Cool to get a glimpse into life in America over 100 years ago!
Can you hear the yelling and crying when something broke?
P]]]p00pppp0pp00p]pppp
Glimpse is all you really get out of the dig. Don't make the mistake of carting home any of that trash. There isn't a single item of any value in that pile from the trash pit.
Fun hobby, but the notion that you're going to find something of value (that isn't broken) is a pervasive myth.
He literally hit "pay dirt"!
Some things haven't changed.
What amazing pits you dug this time - I loved the milk glass bottle but I was so amazed that someone could have thrown down an electric light bulb around 100 plus years ago and it remained intact. Thanks for this amazingly historical haul through our history. x
I raised my kids in a turn of the century farming and fishing village where the tiny downtown core was left mostly intact. I can imagine walking into those stores and seeing these items on shelves.
First time here. Your channel is better than PBS’s “Antiques Roadshow Show”.
Could call it the Apothecary Pit. Such fertile soil, too. Makes for a very happy tree! Fun!! Thanks for sharing!
haha wow! thank you! that is so nice! we really appreciate that!!!
Polk county is situated in the Red River Valley and was once the ancient lake bed of Lake Agassiz which deposited a thick layer or organic material that makes it some of the most fertile soil in the world.
@@justwondering1967 sounds like the Nile of North America, minus (or, maybe thanks to) the privy pit(s), perhaps.
Thank you for the Lake bottom comment of fertile soil. Very insightful knowledge
@@user-SgHDr217 I wouldn’t quite give it Nile status ( I would reserve that for the Mississippi that has its headwaters only about 60 miles East). I will say this, however, it is one of the few rivers that flows north like the Nile.
Boy, you really know so much about these bottles. I wish I knew even a little bit about them, but I'm learning more from you. Thank you. I really love watching you Tom. Again, Thank you.
Tom you found a beautiful assortment of bottles and glassware. Not so many liquor bottles like past videos. With that many children, there must be more privies there. Great video, loved that old tree.👍👏😀
My in-laws dug bottles during the 70s&80s Both very recently passed. There are hundreds & hundreds of bottles in their estate. Many were dug in downtown Portland, Oregon during major building. Many early buildings were torn down to make way for new high rise buildings. The amount of collectibles is staggering. Yes the sites of old out houses were always a treasure trove of old bottles. May they both rest in peace.
The detail that you include in this video is appreciated.
I thoroughly enjoyed watching.
24:50 Green pigment at the time was either Paris green or Scheele's green, both toxic. They both contained arsenic and were used in both paints and insecticides. Lead paint is mostly red, yellow, or white.
I wish they made lead paint still especially with the radiation flying around, people have made feraday cage protectors
Came here to say this. I think that was definitely Scheeles green but it would have to be tested to be sure. I wish Tom would wear a respirator mask sometimes. He's literally digging in poop.
@@JsgHair71 You're probably right on that. It's cool to dig them, but I'd imagine the chances for getting some pretty serious diseases are higher.
Jackpot Tom! Incredible finds and so many. I dug up that same Watkins bottle 3 days ago. Great work 👍
I dug for bottles and jars in old dumps when I was a kid, still have a lot of them on my mantle - great hobby and good memories.
I'm back home in North Texas now and I can recognize the great treasure in this video is the fertile black soil he's digging in.
If my property here had soil like that, I'd be rich now, I'll bet it would grow anything.
Seemed like the family that lived here were fairly wealthy by the items you were digging out,great dig guys!
He found a "cream-ola" in the "crap-ola" which is down right exciting.
Interesting how every pit is a picture into who once lived there! Even down to finding unbroken useable items vs all busted pieces. So many intact pieces in this pit makes me think they were financially able to toss usable items and buy new instead of using things until they were destroyed.
Is anyone else screaming there's a bottle right there??? I love this how he explains what they are
Love the milk glass bottles. Amazing finds! That pit was definitely loaded.
I find your channel fascinating. Your knowledge is far and wide. I'm so happy you put the actual historical info in the upper right corner as you go through your finds. It helps us learn too! thanks for doing that! What i find interesting is that from what i gather by living here in the deep south, people that had outhouses never put "trash" in their outhouses. They had another pit/area for all the breakables and they burned all burnables. I was told that all the trash put in an outhouse would contribute to it filling up faster so they didn't do that. I wonder why up north it was done differently? Great channel....fun fun, digging for history.
I am 3/4 Cherokee and I live in Arkansas along the Trail of Tears. A large encampment was in Wing, Arkansas. We saw items in the banks of a creek and explored. If you ever get the opportunity to dig, it is easy see the lesser footprint they left.
Awesome find! We used to dig thru our great grandparents dump from mid 1880's which was on the creek bank 20 yards from the old house.
So friggin happy to see a new episode AND it's over 48+ mins long!!!! Thank you! Thank you! Made my week!!!!!!!!😊
I love your finds. The flow blue was likely from England; the Brits considered them seconds and sold them to the US.
I absolutely love anything milkglass. You are very knowledgeable about your finds. Happy digging!
You mentioned the wire embedded in and overgrown by the oak tree. I couldn’t actually see the perspective you saw the wire from, but you implied that when the wire was attached the attachment point was much lower. That’s not likely. A tree generally gets bigger around and it grows taller, but it grows taller by adding to the very top only. Each point on a tree stays at the same height throughout its life. If you attach a wire to a tree today, it will be at the same height 100 years from now.
No it won’t . I’ve got barbed wire sticking out of a tree 11:11 that’s at least 80 years old. 4 strands sticking out, the lowest wire is 6 feet from the ground.
My husband, 70, when his grandmother died, his mother brought all her mother's dishes, good china, kitchenware from her grandmother also, back to their house. It was stored temporarily, in the barn. Stored until my husband and his brother went in with their pellet guns. It makes me sick to think of it.
I love how long your videos are!! Enjoy every minute
Great dig. Now that the weather is getting better...new digs perhaps? Looking forward to more,this one was a good one,more history of a family, can't get too much more intimate than digging in their old poo. What a way to make a living,hard work,too. It's really interesting and I get excited with you when you dig up something historic!🌈☺️ Keep up the good diggings! Hope you had a lovely weekend wherever you are today.🌷🌷🌷
Oh my good golly that earth is black and so wonderful! I know its compost too but still very rich soil!
I was noticing the same thing. Looks like very rich soil.
Me 3. I have greenhouses and garden. It looked amazing.
Same! Looking at that soil thinking...man that's some good dirt.
Wonder where he is digging, thinking the same as dirt is black. Some good finds there !!!
pure poops
I’d love to smell the perfume originally in the Laird New York milk glass bottle. Love your videos! So do my folks!! You don’t need a gym, this is a workout!!❤
Thank you!
@Below the Plains - The small glass lid at 3:23 goes to the bottle at 10:25. Thanks for the great vids.
I recently moved to a farm from 1929. I don’t think there was an outhouse here (unless there was a home here prior to the 1929 house and barn) but there was an outdoor cistern. They dug most of the stuff out and filled it in so I’ve been digging in the pile of junk. They also burned/buried a bunch of stuff in the woods behind me. I’ve found some early glass bottles along with iron farm stuff. It’s so fun!!!! I love this channel!!!!!
There’s two properties near me that is now MNDNR land and I’m going to go see if I can tell where the houses had been and look for where the old poopers were 😁
This is quite the find. Thanks for sharing this adventure with us.😎
My Dad got old medicine bottles from my grandfathers old junkyard. I cleaned them and put black chenille wires on them and I made tags for them and hung them on a Christmas tree. My Dad was so pleased that I saw some value in his old bottles.
I appreciate the information you show on screen about the products. Love this show!
I dont know why, but im captivated by your video's, lol. I grew up, and worked in San Francisco, as a commercial carpenter. Every once in a while i would find old bottles, (dug up by the backhoe), in the old buildings we were retrofitting. One of my prize bottles was a water bottle i found under a stage like flooring. It had a double lable, so the under label is mint, from 1911 I believe. I saved them, but just stuck in a box in the shed now, ha.
Worked at embarcadero center in SF around the early 70s. So much stuff was turning up they told the equipment operators if they got off their machines to pick up another bottle (or stack of pottery from a rotted crate) they’d be fired. The local university got permission to come in at night and get what they could before it got crushed the next day. Sad. I heard that the area was part of the bay during the gold rush where ships were abandoned and later used as land fill.
Your enthusiasm toward this pit shows early on. I always love when you pull up bottles from my home town, Lowell, MA. It was a major city in the early industrial age and the products that came from that Merrimack valley MA area. I’m almost positive the house I grew up in was a 100+ year old manager mill duplex with a pit house at one point. I remember doing Renos when I was young in the 90s and taking out the tin ceilings and horse hair slats.
three pronged forks are usually called desert forks. I'm glad you got more embossed bottles this time.
With a crudely designed handle with another piece of silverware? Sounds pretty hoity toity for what this is.
Actually, the fork he showed is often called a Civil War fork because the forks were commonly carried by soldiers as the military expected soldiers to carry their own mess kits. They typically date pre1880s. They were more primative in making & style, made to be sturdy, & also used by folks traveling to the West, other explorers, etc. The embellishments are pewter. The fork with 3 prongs was less expensive than the one with 4 prongs. A more affluent person would have a 4 prong fork; if military, an officer.
You have the best job!!!!! I would give anything to dig in the dirt and find treasures .😊
I so enjoy watch you dig and find stuff!!
Watkins is still going. I used to live within 5 to 6 blocks away from the Watkins factory and offices in Winona MN
What an awesome dig. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing!
Just a simple thank you !!! I enjoyed your video❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Our primary school was built on a tip. The kidlets found some old white glass vegemite jars. My little boy hurried off to school next day with gloves and a trowel. They got some great stuff till the teachers stopped them😢
I had a barber and his hobby was to go into abandoned gold and silver minds in Nevada. He would tell me that he would go deep into these minds scared to death by himself and recover incredible things like tonic bottles, whisky bottles, buckets, a colt revolver, a Winchester rifle, a shaving kit, lanterns, maps, canteens. He said he would research an area then go into these mines terrified but it was so exciting he would continue on. Crazy. I don’t think I could do it.
Seeds galore ..wow
Very enjoyable dig to watch. Thank you
Thank you! glad you had a good time!!!
Thanks for the videos. I could watch this for hours. History is something that everyone should learn 😊❤
Killer haul man ! Congratulations
Thank you! yeah it was a fun one!
Wow lots of lost treasures. Thank you ❤
Love the "Heirloom" seeds!
Mr. Askjem, can you do a video of everything you’ve found and collected??
It would be nice to see you while collection at once
Look at that rich black earth left by the last ice age that can be found throughout Iowa too. When a little girl, I loved getting between the deep furrows after my dad plowed fallow ground. The smell of the earth, the big fat earthworms, I will never ever forget the rich aroma of fallow ground.
A fairly new subscriber here, I love watching your digs! If I was younger I would love to do this! I live in old farm country and behind my land is an old farm dump that used to be part of my property. If only I had the stregth.
Thrill of the Hunt, Nice research! Nice Time Capsule
Nice finds! I share your passion, especially for old bottles! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻❤️
Hi tom and jake another fantastic bottle pits 😊it's amazing when you see these different types of bottles and you realise how the evolution of bottled manufacturing change 😀 i surpose it's the history of the bottles 😊 happy Easter 🐣 tom and jake and your families 👪 Andrew south wales uk 👌 👍 👏 😀 🇬🇧
Another great dig! Love it!
Good job, these old bottles are amazing, I grew up in Yankton South Dakota
What a great pit to dig! Great finds and so exciting!
The milk glass bottles and blue bottle was amazing. All of them were beautiful also. So much history. ❤ your videos Tom
Great job Tom! Very entertaining.
Truly an interesting dig mix great .
It always a pleasure to discover another of your videos, I rarely go to my subscription bar so I have a big smile when I came across you, your video, so now it off to make a couple dozen deviled egg and a smile from you and all the wonderful finds. Much love. Afriend.
So interesting Thank you for posting
You do an excellent job describing the items. I'd give about anything if I could go with someone like you. I don't have the strength to dig my own hole. However, this older lady sure could sit with my trowel and unearth items!
I am always amazed at the amount of broken dinnerware. It must not have been microwave safe.
House wife’s throwing them at there hubbies😂
😂😅😂@@catherinepraus8635
😂😅😂
LOL. Archeologists in our family note that Midwestern privies tend to have stuff in them that the owners are trying to hide, especially laudnum bottles (whiskey + opium) or children's dishware the kids have broken.
What an interesting channel. So many amazing finds. The blue "tea kettle" was actually called a " boiler" as it was always kept full of water on the old stove. My grandmother had one that she used up to the early fifties. I remember her making "cowboy coffee" for my grandfather. My aunt finally bought her a percolator and had to teach her how to use it. Lots of good memories.
Wow
Thanks for the adventure ❤
Very nice video with great narration and precise descriptions. One thing about the wires in the tree. They are where they were on the day they were wrapped around the tree. Trees grow outward and upward by adding cells but have very little, if any, upward movement.
That was an amazing pit for sure.
Awesome finds! Loved watching!
Wow some I never seen before
Thanks, cool finds.
I just love both bottle digging and metal detecting. I cal thise of who dig Suburban Archeologist. It is the clos3st I will ever get to the real thing. When you find personal items you can't help and wonder who the owner was, where did they live, what did the do for income, etcetera.
I can't get over how beautiful the soil is and no surface roots! Being so close to trees, I thought for sure there would be a tangle of feeder roots just below the surface. You always find the most interesting items! Thanks for sharing your adventures with us. ;>)
Hi Tom, great finds but you missed a button at 5:23- 5:27 . I'm always impressed by your knowledge of your finds, I still think it would be a great experiment if someone tried to grow those undigested seeds, cheers!!🥰💗👍👍👍💪
Yes grow the seeds please! Or send them to us we want to know could be heirloom seeds!
Lucky! What a nice pieces! Wow!
So interesting to watch these videos.
Another fun dig to watch. Thanks!
Look at that beautiful soil !!!
hahaha i get that comment so much! that really funny. and yeah, its because it was under glacial lake Agassiz so the soil around here is like 12 feet of black soil
Can't wait for you next video I just can't get enough . Really enjoy them
I can’t believe the treasures you found! Your heart must have been racing, but your voice is so calm, lol. I use the small bottles as a vase to put miniature flowers in.
very enjoyble video this week
So great to see another video
Been watching your channel for about a month now, finally something from my hometown, Toledo Ohio... but I was moved to Montreal when I was 2.
Must have been God-fearing and teetotaling parents to have so few liquor bottles in the privies of a household with eleven kids! Judging by the other discards, they could have afforded to drink.
Those embossed cobalt blue and milk glass bottles are quite the consolation prize for the dearth of embossed liquor and beer containers!
When my dad and l would take down old houses, I'd always clime under and l found 6 cool glass flask. Found some medicine still in a bottle that says it's for horses and men.
Amazing you found that
Awesome finds and video...such a variety of bottles...loved the old sad iron...keep on digging...🥰🥰
Oh my goodness , I love old bottles like those and there you are digging them out of an old toilet pit!!! I would LOVE to find a place like that to dig out so many collectibles like you are finding!!! I’d give anything to be there digging those bottles out!!!
You really know your bottles and terminology
Very interesting & not even that deeply buried. This outhouse was a treasure trove, who knew. Colic, cholera & diarrhea! Color me impressed! This was fun & you did all the work, thanks
Awesome finds tom
Not a bad haul. Nice mix I mean. On to the next!
Very interesting. I can't believe that some bottles are complete with the liquid STILL INSIDE! Wow!
I love the household pits the best! So much variety. Thanks for a great, great dig and video!!
Wow what a collection of bottles. Don't know that I would have used most of that stuff back then but interesting to look at. Have a great day and happy digging