Items Found and Locations
Dump digging can yield different items and artifacts in each location. A town dump can be somewhat different than a farm dump or a railroad dump but in each case there could be industrial age pottery, stoneware, china, tobacco pipes, military relics like bayonets and gun barrels, musket balls, uniform buttons and other buttons, marbles and an assortment of other things. However, a high percentage of these dump discoveries are routinely found in severe states of decay, damaged or broken altogether. In many cases even the things which have stood the test of time remarkably well have little if any monetary value. There are many exceptions to this general rule that keep dump diggers busy searching and occasionally they are surprised by what they unearth working their sites.
Through the common process known as tipping, vast amounts of refuse generated by towns and cities were dumped into harbors, along marshy shorelines and other areas while forming viable real estate cheaply. Excavating in these areas is also a form of dump digging. Elusive and often deep, small portions of these ashy landfill dumps are sometimes rediscovered during major development projects. In fact, enormous quantities of a given locations everyday trash were actually deposited into these often difficult to reach locales. The bulk of this garbage has never been investigated and at present much of it is still undiscovered. However, through researching and active searching occasionally the opportunity arises to dig into small portions and find old bottles and other objects which survive remarkably well as curiosities, collectibles or antiques. For centuries active waterways were also frequently converted into major dumping spots for household and industrial refuse but they are generally impossible to reach without expensive equipment. Along with the existing information generated from the efforts of dump diggers and others, a wealth of additional information is waiting among these widely distributed landfills and other dumping spots.
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Famous quotes containing the word items:
“In the midst of this chopping sea of civilized life, such are the clouds and storms and quicksands and thousand-and-one items to be allowed for, that a man has to live, if he would not founder and go to the bottom and not make his port at all, by dead reckoning, and he must be a great calculator indeed who succeeds.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)