Old dump sites

[yedi21]

one of my favorite things to do when out walking in the woods is looking for old cellar holes and dump sites... it's amazing the things you find...bottles, pottery, shoes, iron... to all you woodsmen and women..... have you come across any in your woodland adventures? what have you found??

[Admin]

I love doing that kind of stuff. Where my camp is there's tons of old cellar holes and I love poking around in them. Even if I don't find anything it's nice to wonder about how it was living back in that era. I think the only thing I ever found was an old ax head and rocks for my hearth

[adkwildflower]

Old homesteads are fascinating and I love treasure hunting around them. I've found lots of cool bottles, an old crock, tools, wagon wheels and some very ornate barn door hinges that I intend to use someday.

[cam]

Around here alot of the OLD homestead sites I find are built into a rise in the ground. Helped with heating and cooling, as well as being able to hold their own in a fight with the indians as I understand.

I like to pack in a metal detector to these places and see what I can find. If I can get the layout of the land and its buildings, it makes it easier. I've found coins where the outhouses were, probably from someone dropping a load off and losing the change in their britches.

Coolest thing I've ever found was a sheepsfoot blade that was dropped where an old corral was. Worst thing I've ever found was a jawbone from a child.

Cam

[hillbillyken]

what is a sheepsfoot blade

[badger]

Been a few years since I've picked through one. Might have to go look for one soon.

[cam]

Oct 25, 2009 11:04:06 GMT -5 hillbillyken said:

what is a sheepsfoot blade

We used to use em for castrating hogs. And I heard thats why they were developed...for slicing nuts off. And leatherwork. Oh..and I've seen some of our local brush apes use them when they're putting fresh shoes on their mules, too.

Let me see if I can find a good pic... You'll know it when you see it. If you own a Case pocketknife, there's a good chance you got one on it. They put em on a lot of their knives.

Here ya go..

www.dantesknife.com/images/SS175RB.jpg

[Deleted]

I used to find a lot of old stuff like that, specially round old skid sites in the bush, and around old farm sheds and houses.
Have any of you found those old marble bottles with a pinched neck and a marble in the neck?
The coloured glass bottles are cool too, the different blues and greens.

Of course the main ones you find round the old skid sites and logging camps are whiskey bottles but even they are cool, specially if you find one with a pourer spout in it and a wire handle, they used to make them up and fill them with oil or meths to lube the saw baldes in the tree.

[Deleted]

Oct 24, 2009 20:17:02 GMT -5 adkwildflower said:

Old homesteads are fascinating and I love treasure hunting around them. I've found lots of cool bottles, an old crock, tools, wagon wheels and some very ornate barn door hinges that I intend to use someday.

We found some old wooden wheels once, only about knee high but really solid. We sold them online as garden ornaments and made $150 each for them.

[barkspud]

I like to poke around them old foundation and all. Never really was looking for bottles or stuff checking for critter sign. I worked with a friend for a while dozer, backhoe and groud work He had some pretty neat bottles and hunted them a lot. his sister runs a big shop and delt with things like that. I was shocked at the money he was making of it. We would check out a lot that had to be cleared. If it had bamboo growing on it we started there first. He said they used to plant it to hide there dumps, because it grew so fast and when died covered ground. I don,t know how many old bottles we carried home or what each one was worth. All I knew was if he was on phone with sister it was something good. Since I have carried home some of my own as well as some old insulators. I find quit a few digging bloodworms in mud and if it looks old or neat sack it home.

[fishleclair]

Where I run my line there is an old Homestead from back in the late 1800's Never did go lookin around but Ihave found old wrought iron bars beds, Old wagon wheels and and old wash basin. I know there is allot more and I need to go with a Metal detector back there and look around!!

[trapperandhunter]

my parents property used to be an old farmstead. there are rock fences running through it old bottles, and metal pans ect scattered through out it pretty cool when you think about it

[Deleted]

on our farm it used to be part of an old farmstead and where we put our one garden was beside where they had the barn originally and well we have found pretty near everything in there the best item i think we have found is one of the old original irons the ones that used to go on the stove to heat only the bottom part though and many other unique item and also living along a creek new things wash up each year with the flood mostly just old bottles though

[Deleted]

Jan 7, 2010 22:36:54 GMT -5 @biggamehunter said:

living along a creek new things wash up each year with the flood mostly just old bottles though

One of my best finds along a creek was an old earthen ware jug still with a stopper in it. I cleaned it up and kept it for years, it never even had a chip or crack in it anywhere and you could still read the stuff that was engraved in the bottom when it was made and the label that had been painted on or whatever they did before it was glazed. The glazing had hardly even gotten that crazy cracked pattern in it.

[minktracks]

The entire front clip from a 1950 something corvette. I can kick myself for not hauling it out.
Brass beds
More tools then I would list and of course the cans and bottles of their time.
Old hunting licenses, fishing licenses. I sold them.
Still have a what looks like the first ever ice fishing rod I restored. It is about 2 foot long or so, and I found the patent for it online from 1921. It's actually pretty cool.

[yedi21]

you never know what you have.....here is a story for you from Ebay.... a couple was rebuilding an old barn and came across an old pickle jar...they weren't interested in it, so they put it on ebay with a starting bid of $1.00 with a beautiful picture of it....after the bidding was done........they got $10,000.00 for it!!!! ;D

hope I come across one someday!!!

[woodsman416]

One property that I hunt is at the top of a mountain (big hill for some of you guys). There an old cabin foundation from the 50s. We always called it "the old hermits cabin". The land owner told storys about the guy that used to live there. The best things I found there was an old crosscut saw blade and this HEAVY steel fireplace grate. I brought the saw home but, at the time, I didn't have a fireplace big enough to fit the grate. Fast forward about 15 years (3 years ago), I bought my "farmette" which has a much larger fireplace than my last house. Of course there's no grate in it so I make the 20 mile drive, hike up the mountain and retrieve the old hermits grate. It fits perfect, like it was made for my house. A few weeks later a neighbor from up the road stops by to introduce himself. We're sitting in the living room, talking hunting and the story of the fireplace grate comes up. "Where exactly is this old hermits cabin?" he asks me. "Up on top of Round Mountain" I reply. He grabs his phone out of his pocket and calls his brother. "Butch" he says, "guess where I am?" Waits for a reply. " I'm sitting in my neighbors living room in front of the fireplace. The fire is burning on the grate from Uncle Andys old cabin up in Stanton!" Small world!

[yedi21]

;D great story......... it certainly is a small world!! thanks for sharing that!!