If you’ve been reading this blog for five minutes, you’ll know that I am unabashedly on the hunt for buried treasure on our 250-year-old property.
Surely, surely, there must be something hidden around here somewhere. Preferably, this something would be valuable enough to pay off our mortgage, but I’m not picky.
We recently dug a trench alongside our Carriage House and that trench was full and I do mean FULL of buried treasure.
I don’t mean the valuable sort of treasure.
More like this was someone’s garbage pile.
An actual garbage pile that had been buried over time, and now I’m donning my proverbial Indiana Jones hat and saying under my breath, “one man’s trash could be my treasure.”
I don’t understand why someone seemingly chucked garbage behind their house. Was there no other option other than creating their own Temple of Doom in the backyard?
Anyway, I digress.
Want to see what we found? I say this with sincerity, it was an exciting couple of days.
We found several intact glass jars.
There was a Ball “perfect mason” jar made with blue glass. The zinc lid had rusted away, and the milk glass insert inside the lid was cracked to smithereens, but other than that, it was in great shape. The “perfect mason” jars were manufactured between 1913 and 1922. The blue glass was used until 1937. (source).
We found an old Listerine bottle manufactured by Lambert Pharmacal Co. It was manufactured after the mid-1920s because it has a screw cap. Listerine didn’t switch to plastic bottles until 1994! As a side note, Listerine got in trouble by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in 1976 for erroneously telling consumers for years that their mouthwash could cure all sorts of problems like the common cold and sore throat. (source)
There were a handful of other glass bottles that we found as well. The one with the handle and ribbed edges will make a really cute bud vase. The tiniest glass bottle is a Bayer aspirin bottle, likely from the early to mid 1900s.
We also found 35 colorful tin tiles.
The mid-20th century was a colorful time period! The tin tiles we found buried in the ground came in a variety of expected pastel colors such as blue, yellow, and pink. We also found a handful of copper and stainless steel-looking tiles. The copper tile was not unexpected because we found some of those hidden in our kitchen wall.
These tin tiles are fireproof, so they were a popular choice for homeowners to use in their homes. It would also make them difficult to dispose of if you were into burning your garbage. These were likely manufactured in New Jersey by Vikon Tile Co.
What will I do with these tiles? I’m not sure! My first inclination is to make a tabletop or wall art with them. If you have any suggestions, let me know!
We found one marble.
I thought restoring this old home had made me lose all my marbles, but look at that. Got one back!
Knock, knock! We found a doorknob.
We found a white doorknob. It’s either made from porcelain or ceramic and likely imported from Europe. These were popular from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s. (source)
It isn’t unreasonable to think that it came off of our main floor bathroom door. One side of that door has a white knob that matches the one we found. The other side has a different colored doorknob.
Why did I save this? To use as a miniature Christmas tree base, of course. I have an entire blog post dedicated to these festive gems. You can check it out here.
We found two electrical insulators.
It was electrifying to find two porcelain knobs that were, presumably, part of this home’s original knob and tube wiring. We know the house was rewired with “modern” wiring around 1970 because I have the 1971 MLS Listing that lists this as a selling point of the home.
I feel so fortunate that the previous owner saved that little flyer for almost 50 years and then thought to give it to me. That’s a true historical treasure right there.
Our house was owned by one family from 1971 until 2019, when we purchased the home. So far in my deed research, this is the longest stretch of time that the house was owned by one family. I only have confidence in my deed research back to the late 1800s, though, so maybe there was less turnover in the 100 years before that.
The more times a property is sold, the trickier it gets to follow the trail of evidence at the county courthouse because you’re relying on a system of handwritten property descriptions that change over time. For instance, road names get changed, property markers could be a tree stump that rots away, or a property is referenced by who owned the land bordering it at the time. Be thankful for modern lot and block numbers that make property research much easier.
We also removed loads of rocks and broken glass.
We pulled 4 trash bags of broken glass and 10 wheelbarrows full of stones out of the trench. Keep in mind, this trench was only 18 inches wide, 24 inches deep, and 20 feet long.
At one point, Handy Husband asked, “At what point does this count as soil remediation?”
We took so many rocks out of the ground that we didn’t have enough dirt left to fill the trench back in completely.
The reason why we didn’t want to put the stones back in the ground is that it will make it extra hard to dig up that trench someday. Knowing our luck, we’ll be the poor suckers who have to re-dig the trench. In addition, we can use those stones to fix the stone walls around our property. I already used some of them to rebuild the foundation of the Carriage House. They won’t go to waste!
Last, but not least, we found Santa’s stash of coal.
It was not surprising to find coal in the ground. Coal was widely used to power heating systems and cookstoves during the Victorian and Edwardian periods. We know someone locally who was still using coal to power the heating system in their house until 2024.
If you want to see how a coal cook stove works (trust me, you do), watch this clip of historian Ruth Goodman lighting a coal range. If the video doesn’t load, watch it here on YouTube. P.S. The entire series, Edwardian Farm, is fascinating.
If you’ve never encountered a piece of coal, it will be shiny black if you wash the dirt off. It is also extremely light for its size.
You’ll expect it to weigh like a normal rock, but it feels like almost nothing when you hold it.
We did save the coal because we like to be prepared for anything.
I should mention that I have used the term “we” pretty loosely in this blog post. By we, I really mean Handy Husband. He did 99% of the work. Our kids helped a little.
I was working on repointing the Carriage House while this project was going on. Every time Handy Husband dug something of interest out of the ground, he would come find me and say, “I found something for you!”
Note that he didn’t say, “I found something.” He always tacked the “for you” onto the end of that sentence. Isn’t that the sweetest? Then he would ask me, “What are you going to do with all of these bottles? You have so many now.”
I always replied, “I will love them forever.”
I didn’t say I would keep them forever, though. Time will tell what I end up doing with all of this buried treasure.
Have you ever found buried treasure? Did it pay off your mortgage? Dish the dirt, please! You can always comment on this blog post, email me here, or reach out via Instagram or Facebook. I respond to all of your comments.
Happy treasure seeking!
P.S. Prior to 1970, residential waste disposal was unregulated in New Jersey. At one time, there were 400 different landfills, and New Jersey accepted trash from New York and Pennsylvania. Some household waste was incinerated, and I’m sure individuals burned their own garbage, but there was no regulation on this practice either. Waste disposal regulation in the 1970s and 80s greatly improved the air, water, and soil pollution in New Jersey, and for that, I am thankful. (source)
Thank you for coming along on this journey with me. I hope you had a good time. If you’d like another blog post to read, I’d be a bad host if I didn’t offer up one of these: