How many of you found garbage buried around your place from past owners?

[paulsharvey]

HDD= horizontal Directional drill.

 

[ponytug]

HDD= horizontal Directional drill.

Thanks, I was wondering as well.
Good luck with your resident dismantler.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I have a small junk pile that I am excavating for good junk. I have retrieved several perfectly good glass quart mayonnaise jars (remember them?) that make perfectly good canning jars after cleaning. 100 year old cobalt glass pill bottles. Scrap iron. Once upon a time, you burned what would burn and shoved the rest in a ditch.

 

[two_bit_score]

I hauled off 8 or more pickup loads of carpet when I moved here. Some of it was rolled out in the yard, two layers thick. There was an old single wide trailer that had 4 layers of carpet in it. I still find pieces of old shag 18 years later.

It's amazing how long that stuff can last.

 

[two_bit_score]

Some cities and towns have areas that wee buried by disasters over the years. I know Galveston Texas has areas that were buried by the Great Hurricane. Here is something interesting about Seattle.

>>>Beneath Seattle lies the Seattle Underground, a network of underground passageways, basements, and former streets located in the Pioneer Square neighborhood. This subterranean system was once the original ground level of Seattle, built on filled-in tidelands that were prone to flooding and vulnerable to fire. After the Great Seattle Fire of June 6, 1889, which destroyed 25 city blocks and prompted a major rebuilding effort, city planners decided to regrade the area by raising the streets one to two stories higher—up to 30 feet in some places—to combat flooding and improve sanitation. As a result, the original street level became inaccessible, and shop entrances were left 12 to 22 feet below the new ground level, requiring ladders for access.
The underground space was used for storage and later became a haven for illicit activities, including speakeasies and opium dens, before being condemned in 1907 due to fears of the bubonic plague. It remained largely forgotten until the 1960s, when preservationist Bill Speidel revived interest by launching the first guided Underground Tour in 1965, helping to save Pioneer Square as a historic district. Today, the Seattle Underground is a popular tourist attraction, offering guided tours through its damp, dimly lit tunnels, where visitors can see remnants of 19th-century buildings, vault lights, and historical artifacts. The area is also known for its eerie atmosphere and stories of Seattle’s sordid past.

 

[paulsharvey]

Jacksonville FL was built on its burnt ruins. Beaver Street/SR10/US90 (Not I-10), we were working on moving a gas line about 10 years ago, under the road, asphalt, on top of concrete, and as we dug down, you smell something like oil fuel spill. about 36" deep, rail road cross ties, creosote treated. I dont know if the road was build on top of an old rail road, or if the cross ties where used to bridge muck, or what?

 

[paulsharvey]

In Florida, there is often a thought that everything is pretty recent, except old St Augustine. In reality, Jacksonville, Ocala, Starke, Palatka, Lake City, Tallahassee, all where around during the war.

Palatka was water mains that are from 1898... So, its not all new.

The Chruch we used to go too, was named Elaim, meaning "of the people", although not the original structure, was started as a church that the slaves could stand in the back, and also get "the word". I think it started shortly pre-war, like 1858 or so

 

[etpm]

Speaking of buried stuff, a friend's well terminated in a tree. 450 feet down. I mentioned this to the guy who was putting my well in and he said that they went through trees on a regular basis. Whidbey Island is all glacial till on the south end, 3000 feet thick. Who knows where those trees came from. But they all must be from Canada. I have a big rock on my property that is of a certain type and the closest source is 300 miles away in Canada.
Eric

 

[paulsharvey]

So, we have done some deeper directional drills, either under creeks/rivers, or to get below other bored in utilities. In my part of the state, we have zero rock. Old house, 105 ft deep well, still in sand. But, some of these 75 ft, 100ft deep directional drills makes you think, what is the "soil" down there, 50 ft below sea level? There is rock somewhere down there. Other parts of the state, and I mean just 30 miles away, you get into truck sized chert rock, or limerock. Never worked in south Florida, but ive heard the rock down there is hard, and everywhere when you get about 5-10 ft below sea level.

 

[Jstpssng]

Some cities and towns have areas that wee buried by disasters over the years. I know Galveston Texas has areas that were buried by the Great Hurricane. Here is something interesting about Seattle.

>>>Beneath Seattle lies the Seattle Underground, a network of underground passageways, basements, and former streets located in the Pioneer Square neighborhood. This subterranean system was once the original ground level of Seattle, built on filled-in tidelands that were prone to flooding and vulnerable to fire. After the Great Seattle Fire of June 6, 1889, which destroyed 25 city blocks and prompted a major rebuilding effort, city planners decided to regrade the area by raising the streets one to two stories higher—up to 30 feet in some places—to combat flooding and improve sanitation. As a result, the original street level became inaccessible, and shop entrances were left 12 to 22 feet below the new ground level, requiring ladders for access.
The underground space was used for storage and later became a haven for illicit activities, including speakeasies and opium dens, before being condemned in 1907 due to fears of the bubonic plague. It remained largely forgotten until the 1960s, when preservationist Bill Speidel revived interest by launching the first guided Underground Tour in 1965, helping to save Pioneer Square as a historic district. Today, the Seattle Underground is a popular tourist attraction, offering guided tours through its damp, dimly lit tunnels, where visitors can see remnants of 19th-century buildings, vault lights, and historical artifacts. The area is also known for its eerie atmosphere and stories of Seattle’s sordid past.

That's interesting.

This would also fit well in the "Tell us something we don't know" thread.

 

[JasperFrank]

It was just common in the old days to dump rubbish in the woods.
It took me 20 years to pick out all the stuff that had been tossed out along the easement road that defines my property. I did little sections at a time. Found all manner of vintage glass. And in a way, it became interesting. One person, apparently liked a particular cologne. Which from the bottles, I could trace back to the late 40's and early '50's.
The creepy thing was finding all the porcelain doll heads. Some within tossing distance from the road, and some too far away to have been tossed.
Somewhere here, there is a story.

 

[Jstpssng]

There was a private road not far from the dump in a town not far from here. Both sides of it for 1/4 mile were lined with trash from people who apparently didn't know the dump hours, or who didn't care.
I went past one day and it was all cleaned up, with a handwritten sign saying "No more of this ****!" or something to that effect. I was talking later to a forester who helped look after the land and she said that one thing they found was old records from a business which had closed.
They paid a fine for that one.

 

[Oaktree]

I was talking later to a forester who helped look after the land and she said that one thing they found was old records from a business which had closed.
They paid a fine for that one.

Rule #1 for littering, don't leave anything that can identify you.

 

[tomplum]

Rule #1 for littering, don't leave anything that can identify you.

That's actually rule # 2. Rule # 1 is don't. Amazing what lots of you have dealt with in this thread. Makes me wish that I was the only one, but then again we are who we are.

 

[gstrom99]

I had stayed overnight at my hunting camper back in Indiana 10+ years ago. I heard a car back up to the drive and I saw a guy get out and start unloading garbage from his trunk. My dog started barking like crazy (on a leash thankfully, for him) and I yelled something like "What the F are you doing?" He yelled back "Sorry!", scrambled all the crap back into his car and drove off.

People can be really stupid.

 

[bigtiller]

When I got back from my walk around town, I called the local cop on his cell phone to report a dead white tail deer that was half butchered and laying on top of a blue tarp in the road ditch. It was about 200 yards north of the city limits.

He thanked me for the info and that he had an idea who put it there and it should be gone before dark. I noticed it was gone the next day on my walk.

 

[Shenandoah MF1760]

This entire thread had me humming the tune from Alice's Restaurant while reading it.

All of it very relatable.

I've found truck tires, a 4 cylinder Suzuki engine block, folding chairs set up in odd places, bowling ball, golf clubs & balls along with baseballs and bats, water skis and the thing I hate most of all - broken glass, especially broken tempered glass from car windows. I think glass is lighter than dirt which is why it keeps coming to the surface. The previous owners must have loved to break glass, it's everywhere within 200' of where their house was.

Our dump used to take anything for free, they'd just point you to the appropriate dumping site based on what you had. Last hurricane destroyed my wood fence and I filled the pickup up half full and headed there only to be told it was now $75 a truck, regardless of load. I took it to my property in an unincorporated part of the county and burned it.

I had to register an old '53 7.5Hp Merc outboard that I got from by brother's estate in California. Apparently California doesn't register them but Texas does (that seems backwards!)

And we used to dump the old oil on to the drive to keep the dust down too.

 

[Eagle1]

I found all the pieces to a hang glider in the woods here. Even put it back together before sanity took hold and I used most pieces for a chicken run frame

 

[Jstpssng]

Rule #1 for littering, don't leave anything that can identify you.

A few years ago one of our foresters got a call from a harvesting contractor, to tell him that somebody had dumped a couch on the road they were cutting from. He called the Maine Forest Service who sent Ranger went to check it out... he found an envelope which had fallen between the cushions. The guy drove 30 miles to dump it in the woods, only to have it come back the next day.
Along with a summonse for littering.

 

[etpm]

I hate glass coming out of the dirt too. But I have to admit to burying a bunch of glass. I put the broken window panes in the garbage can and it was refused. I called the garbage company and they told me broken glass needed to be taken to their main dump. 35 miles from my house. So the glass sat for a couple years until I needed to dig a really deep hole. I needed to get rid of some thatch ant nests because the ants were damaging trees and my house. So I dug an 8 foot deep hole with my Case580 CK backhoe. Then I dug up the thatch ant nests and put them in the deep hole. Then I flooded the hole about 2 feet deep. Then I remembered the glass. Threw it into the hole and filled it. That was about 15 years ago. Neither the ants or glass have returned. But maybe some archaeologist will find that glass with the ant nests underneath way in the future. And cuss the glass.
Eric