What Have you unexpectedly found when Digging?

[Cacinok]

There's a place like that south west of South Bend, Indiana. It was a swamp until the 1800's, when it was drained. The area from here all the way to the Illinois border only has an 11' drop in elevation. At one time, it was a sea bed. If you go down 4-8' below the muck soil, there is a layer of sea shells about 4' thick, then sand. Pretty neat.

i did my undergraduate work in Utah and would go four wheelin' in the mountains surrounding the salt lake valley. in the foot hills, if you did some digging, you'd find shells occasionally. and what was more cool, when you got a little higher up, you'd find impressions of shells in rocks.

 

[droy]

While working construction years ago, I was digging up levees in a large crayfish pond with a Cat D3/backhoe. The rats,(muskrats, nutria, etc.) had tunneled through the levees allowing the water to pass from one cut to another. After moving to a new spot, I started digging, and came up with a bucket of mud and snakes; a nest of cottonmouths that made the backhoe bucket look like Medusa's head. Snakes are not my favorite critters, and I had to abandon the machine and clean my pants.

 

[Cacinok]

While working construction years ago, I was digging up levees in a large crayfish pond with a Cat D3/backhoe. The rats,(muskrats, nutria, etc.) had tunneled through the levees allowing the water to pass from one cut to another. After moving to a new spot, I started digging, and came up with a bucket of mud and snakes; a nest of cottonmouths that made the backhoe bucket look like Medusa's head. Snakes are not my favorite critters, and I had to abandon the machine and clean my pants.

lol. having canoed through some of the swamps in your area, i know exactly what you're talking about, well to a lesser degree, only ever seen two snakes at the same time. you don't have any pics do you?

 

[gordon21]

Jimmy Hoffa

 

[woodchuckie]

We have elevations ranging from 520 feet above sea level to around 95 above sea level. But once upon a time it was a shallow sea and later a swamp. It's common to see petrefied wood which looks to be made from limestone desposits. It's usually uncovered where logging roads have been cut through hills. The biggest piece I've seen is about four feet long which I carried home.

 

[sandman2234]

As a kid in my Grandmother's 1 acre yard, I dug up an old jar about 1/3 filled with change. As a present, I got to pick one of the coins. My choice was a 1859 "O" Liberty seated dime, which my Dad keeps out at his place. There were a couple gold coins in the bunch but I didn't get a chance at them. No telling what the value of those coins are worth on today's market, but I will never know since my Grandmother's step kids raided the place and took everything with a power of attorney he had signed while in the hospital. I couldn't do something like that because I have to live with myself.
David from jax

 

[MossRoad]

While working construction years ago, I was digging up levees in a large crayfish pond with a Cat D3/backhoe. The rats,(muskrats, nutria, etc.) had tunneled through the levees allowing the water to pass from one cut to another. After moving to a new spot, I started digging, and came up with a bucket of mud and snakes; a nest of cottonmouths that made the backhoe bucket look like Medusa's head. Snakes are not my favorite critters, and I had to abandon the machine and clean my pants.

I'll take that empty suit case and ketchup bottle over a bucket O' snakes anytime!!!

 

[hitekcountry]

I was digging with my tractor and stopped to go do something and when I came back my step-son came up to me said “look what I found”. I immediately told him to “put that thing down”. What he had pulled out of the ground in the area I had been digging was a blasting cap. When he showed me where he had found it I saw there were quite a few wires sticking out of the ground which told me there were a few more. What concerned me was not knowing how sensitive they might be after being in the ground for who knows how long. Managed to get them all out of the ground using long handled tools (wasn’t going to touch them) and dropped them using a long stick into a fire inside a steel drum. About 10 or 20 seconds after dropping into the fire they would explode. Sounded about like a 22.

 

[swampvol]

This thread is giving me yet another reason to want a backhoe.

 

[john_bud]

Was out walking around the back yard where I had put spoils from a couple years ago. Saw a white something and being curious, went to look. The hard rain we recently had washed the dirt off of a stone arrow head. Pretty cool.


I have found a fair number of logging chokers, but only find them with the brush cutter! I hates that...

jb

 

[escavader]

this weekend i found a tiny old bottle in which reads:sample bottle
dr kiemers
swamp root
kidney cure
binghamton ny

 

[cny]

this weekend i found a tiny old bottle in which reads:sample bottle
dr kiemers
swamp root
kidney cure
binghamton ny

Like this one?

 

[escavader]

Like this one?

exactly.Whats the year,and history?
ALAN

 

[madpogue]

History of Dr Kilmer Bottles

 

[BTDT]

Here is something a friend of mine gave me several years ago, he worked for Gifford-Hill gravel co. It's a mastodon tooth.

 

[hill]

Then in another area I hit what looked like an old dump site, and dug up hundreds of very old bottles in strange shapes and weird colors, some seemd like perfume bottles, all in perfect condition, because they were just in sand.

Those old bottles may have value enough to pay for your land. It was pretty common in the days before garbage collection and city dumps for people to dig holes to bury their trash.

 

[BTDT]

And here are some old bottles we found in different parts of the property, pic 28,27,26, and some snuff bottles (from the bottom), don't know the purpose of the dots?

 

[BTDT]

This pic is of a liquor bottle (1/2 pint) with hearts, pic 21. Pic 17 is a 6oz medicine bottle, with the words "pour here" with an arrow pointing to the opening, go figure.

 

[BTDT]

Pic 14, is several old bottles. The last one on the right, is a medicine bottle from the Chattanooga Medicine co, which is shown in pic 15, and on the other side, pic 16, it says McElree's Cardui. Pic 14 shows some more bottles. The cat shaped bottle in pic 13 has Hammans Beverages, Springfield, Ohio, on the bottom.

 

[BTDT]

Here are a couple of old insulators we have found.