Here is one of my old hobbies (Digging for bottles).
Eureka Utah was my favorite place to dig; these photos are of one of the digs I done back before the reclamation project in that town was started. I obtained an old photograph from the Utah State Historical Society that was taken at the turn of the century 1899/1900 and from that you can estimate the proximity of where some of the out houses were located at by what is still standing today. Pick an area that you can estimate the locations of were a few were back then and go knock on peoples doors who live on the land today and ask for permission to dig in their fields. Some were very interested in it and would give permission, some think you’re nuts and others just tell ya to go to &%$# because they are sick and tired of the people poking around. When you do get a person who will give permission, ya pull out the photo, take a guess at the location and start poking the ground with an Iron rod with a point on the end. After you get through the initial layer of dirt, if you hit where an outhouse was once located, the rod goes down easily and will come up with compost looking soil & Walla! You got a place to dig.
Back in the early days of mining towns springing up, people built shacks, cabins & homes just about anywhere their was ground available and of course an outhouse was a necessity. They did not have garbage pick up like we do today so most all of their trash went into the outhouse and when it filled up they covered it with dirt and dug another hole and put the outhouse over it.
A lot of people think HOW CAN YOU DIG IN CRAP FER FUN?
All of the waist has turned into compost, just good old easy digging top soil and once you get through the top layer of regular dirt & rock that is covering it, digging is a breeze, most times ya dig down 6 to 8 feet and those holes if no one has been their yet before you, are filled with everything that the people threw away over a 100 years ago or more.
I have dug up as many as 148 bottles out of one hole that also contained an old 6 gun (it was worthless of cores because moisture over the years of being in the earth rotted the wood and swollen the metal up to grapefruit size; but it was still cool finding it.
The holes contain marbles, dishes, perfume bottles, whiskey flasks Etc.
The old Pharmacy & medical/medicine bottles that have the pharmaceutical name and decorative engravings can be sold on e-bay and go for pretty good money. I once got $300.00 for a single bottle from a collector from back in Chicago. Most would average from between $5.00 to $50.00 but the blue cobalt bottles with skull & crossbones on them usually went for around $100.00 on e-bay.
I would always give the property owner 10% of the bottles I dug up & after words when refilling the hole would always put the modern day pop bottles etc that contained my lunch about 2 feet from the top so if anybody else came digging in this hole they would hit that and know that the hole has been dug and not waist there time digging it out again.