Historic dump
Civilized people have always had to depose of trash. On a day trip to the Fort Bowie National Historic Site in southeastern Arizona, I explored off-trail and came upon the fort dump. At first I assumed some 20th-century trash had been added because of the hundreds of flattened, rusty cans--I had thought cans were a more modern invention--but research showed that cans were in widespread use during the fort's 1862-1894 active years.
With daylight running out, I had only a few moments to poke through the debris. Here are several interesting items I lined up on my hankerchief to photograph. From left to right, an old bottle neck, a a 45-70 cartridge case, an old-style nail, a slug from a percussion rifle, a colorful piece of pottery and a rock with a hole in it.
1 Comments:
Sometimes when you visit out-of-the-way ghost towns in the West, you will see dugout holes all over the place. These are where the outhouses were. Back the old days, people threw their trash in there. For modern-day antique buffs and treasure-seekers, these depositories were a great place to score a valuable find.
By Chuck Woodbury, at December 11, 2006 9:12 AM
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