# How To Locate A Privy



## Alabama

My buddy just bought a home that was built in 1865 and we are trying to find the privys, we have a probe but the whole back yard is soft dirt, the whole probe sinks with out much pushing on it.


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## RICKJJ59W

Look on the tip of the probe for signs of ash or darker ground.That is a sign that says it is nor (regular) earth.That is the only thing you can do if the probe sinks everywhere with ease.
  Was your yard dug up at anytime? Maybe  it was filled in with (newer) dirt.How long is your probe?
   If someone did dig out your yard and fill it in with fresh soil,chances are they didn't get to the bottom of the privy's.
   I had a case where a guy that we asked permission from said you can try it but a D-9 tore up that whole yard and I know you wont find any privy's there. We never go by what people say unless we saw it happen with our own eyes.That yard produced 5 pits, so the D-9 must have just skimmed the surface.


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## RICKJJ59W

> ORIGINAL: Alabama
> 
> we have a probe but the whole back yard is soft dirt, the whole probe sinks with out much pushing on it.


 

 This is the difference from regular ground soft or otherwise.If you hit a pit with old fill in it the probe should do this.You will never be able to do this in pure earth.


http://s653.photobucket.com/albums/uu251/glassdigger1/?action=view&current=Privyprobing.flv


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## daeldred

It depends on several things. First, we dig in Memphis and I am sure that the dirt isn't any different for most of Alabama.  Here, we usually find that the hard clay (relative) is at about 4-5'. We use 6' probes as a minimum. We have a 9' that we use when necessary. You have to feel it out. If you probe the yard and find that it is the same all over you have then keep looking. You have to feel for a wall (from a brickliner or cistern) or the crunch layer of a woodliner or trash pit. Usually, when you find a privy your probe will drop to the handle and you will feel a scratchy cruch that wasn't anywhere else in the yard. That crunch layer or use layer is what you are looking for. That lets you know that something is down there. About the yard being dug up, it's possible, but unlikely that it would mess up any privies or cisterns. If privies in Alabama are like the ones in Memphis (and I bet they are) they go from 6-12' for woodliners and up to 25' for brickliners.

 P.S. It's all in the probe!!


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## RedGinger

Rick that privy probing video was great!  It helped me understand exactly what you were talking about.  Would you make another one next time so I can see everything you're doing?  Thanks for the help.
 Laur


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## RICKJJ59W

Nothing is (unlikely) in the privy digging world.[]Ya don't know what ya got until you start digging.


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## RICKJJ59W

Me and Paul were just messing around when we found that pit.Next time I might do a step by step clip.That one was to short,but to the point I guess.

 I am digging with Dave(Badger) this weekend at a dump he has been hacking into.Paul is taking his kid fishing so I will get a little change of pace.Next week I will make a longer clip,when we do that pit.


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## daeldred

Hey, cool video. This is a great example of how privy digging is different around the country. Our style of probe is even different because of the soil type. Here in the Mid South you will almost never find a privy where your probe falls in by itself. It's _POSSIBLE_, but unlikely. In the summer time, the dirt here gets so hard that it is very difficult to probe. We have to find our diggin' spots before mid-summer. It's neat how people adapted to their evnironments.

 P.S. This is a reponse to the original poster from Alabama. I wouldn't pretend to know the nuances of probing the Mid-Atlantic and New England states.


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## RedGinger

Sounds good Rick.  We watched the video a few times and we were like, "Now I get it!"  I'm not afraid to sound like I'm new to this, because it hasn't been that long.  When I went privy digging before, I never did the probing.  Plus, I think I am slightly ADD. []  
 What kind of stuff does Paul get to keep?  Seems like you always get the cream of the crop.  Anyway, I would love to see another video about it.  Thanks.
 Laur


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## RICKJJ59W

We both always end up with good stuff that we like.or nothing at all. I tried to do it the flip the coin way but if he doesn't dig it,he doesn't want it.So thats the way it is.But like I said it works out most of the time,and we are cool with it.  The end []


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## RedGinger

Gotcha.  I would feel the same way.  I don't like it when Joe gives me a bottle he dug while we were out, because even though it's generous, I didn't dig it.  Ya know?  Good luck on your dump dig.


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## div2roty

Thats a nice video.  I'd love to see a longer one.  I could use all the pointers possible.  The ground here is pretty soft (not as soft as that spot), but a probe goes in pretty effortlessly.  Its like that pretty much everywhere down here, so its not a case of the yards being filled in.  Of course I am less than 10 miles from the coast.


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## RICKJJ59W

But is there ash on the end of your probe? or signs of a pit?


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## div2roty

I haven't probed enough yet.  I have an idea where one privy would be on my parents property.  There is a standing brick outhouse and if you walked in a straightline toward the house, about 30 feet closer to the house, the ground kind of dips.

 When you say ash, do you mean actual ash as in burned up ashes?  Other than probing at a slant and hiting the privy walls, or hitting actual glass/other trashs under ground, what other signs could there be?




> But is there ash on the end of your probe? or signs of a pit?


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## RICKJJ59W

Anything other then (pure clay) when we see the tip with pure clay on it we keep moving.


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## willong

Nice video Rick. I notice in one of your replies that you mention the "crunch" feel or sound. I would add that sometimes one can actually feel or hear a "tink" when the probe tip actually contacts a bottle. I haven't done as much probing as you privy diggers, but when I used to locate a backwoods or rural dump, I would gently probe about to delineate the boundaries of the dump. I could definitely feel (and often hear) the crunch of decomposed old cans, and the tink of glass when I contacted a whole bottle.  Backwoods dumps were often over an embankment or into a ravine; so, I always sought the lower boundary of the dump in order to avoid covering up bottles with overburden and spoils removed while excavating uphill.

 Another note; I had a friend who used to probe the muck bottom of a marsh by Port Townsend, WA, while knee or even chest-deep in the water. There was no use layer, per se, he strictly located individual bottles by the "tink" sound. Are there any members out there who do the same in southern swamps, or even in Central America (such as in the Canal Zone)?

 Do any forum members have success locating deep dumps and privy pits with metal detectors? Iâ€™ve located old mill sites and logging camps in Washington where Iâ€™ve been unable to locate the dumps. Other visible relics strewn about such as broken axe heads and saw blades, but an absence of glass and tin can residue, indicate that these are not sites that have been dug out or cleaned upâ€”I suspect that subsequent earth-moving activity, even log yarding from two successive harvests, have covered over the dumpsites.* Water and wind erosion can also cover old dumps with drifted sand and mud flows. Iâ€™d like to get a metal detector for locating dump contents that could be anywhere from 2â€™ to 8â€™ downâ€”any suggestions?

 Will

*       Iâ€™ve located a couple of old mill sites where waste cedar slabs trimmed off of shingle bolts have literally filled in small gulliesâ€”not having a backhoe to dig out an entire ravine, Iâ€™m wondering if a metal detector would determine if trash from the cookhouse was somewhere under that mess? Even after a hundred years, a probe will not penetrate such material.


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## RedGinger

Does there have to be ash?  The trash in a privy wasn't always burned was it?


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## daeldred

Hey redginger, I suppose that there doesn't _have_ to be ash, but I would probe doubly hard if you don't see any. The ash is not from the trash being burned per se. The people would throw the ashes from the coal/wood burning stoves in the dumps and privies. That is generally where the ash comes from. If you find some bottles that are deformed from heat, it's likely that they were mixed in with hot coals. All this to say, it's important to listen/feel for the crunch. If you are probing clay which is nice and smooth and then hit a spot that is crunchy at the same depth of the clay, take notice. All things being equal, the crunchy stuff you feel is man made. Which is good...real good.


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## RedGinger

Duh.  Forgot about that!  Thanks Daeldred.  My excuse is I was half asleep when I asked that question lol.  Last time I was trying to probe a privy there was nothing in the clay.  It was VERY hard to dig.  It turned out to not be the privy anyway, unless, I should have dug past the clay.


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## daeldred

Don't worry about Red, it happens to the best of us. Anywho...That's why, when we don't feel a good crunch layer, we'll move on. No doubt that they are privies, but there just isn't going to be much in it without a good cruch layer. If we can't find anything we might come back to it. I don't how the soil is where you are at, but here in the Mid South, we have a pretty consistent semi-hard clay floor (this clay is noticably harder but not hard. You can still push through it but it takes more strength) at about 4-5'. If our 6' probes go all the way to the handle and we still haven't felt a semi-hard clay bottom, we'll spend a little extra time at that spot. We have a 9' probe, too. Sometimes there can be a clay cap a few feet down in a privy, but should feel softer than a semi-hard natural clay bottom.


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## tigue710

sounds nice moving on when there isnt much in em...  up here they are few and far between, and very difficult to find.  We dig anything we can find since most yards have only one heavily dipped pit.  Just gotta go by luck.

 I look for the ash, walls or just that dark poo dirt.  Sometimes hitting clay doesnt mean anything as a lot of the pits are only 3-4 feet deep, and there is hardly ever a crucnchy glass/metal layer, just the crunch of the ash from when the pit was filled in after the last dip...  now and then there is one not dipped and thats when I look for the poo dirt, but the probe has to sink propper.  At least most of the yards are solid a foot down here.  I have hit a few with soft yards, and those can be tring...  the town I'm attempting to dig in right now hias 4-5 feet of fill through out the whole town...


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## daeldred

They dipped privies down here, too. Most of the times though, if we dig a pit that is 2-4' in depth it is a trash pit and not a privy. If your situation is different then then you just have to go with that. I've dug in Maine and compared to the Mid South it is a different world. Down here we can count on having a cistern on every lot. In maine, everyone has wells, most of them are still being used!


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## RICKJJ59W

> ORIGINAL:  tigue710
> the town I'm attempting to dig in right now has 4-5 feet of fill through out the whole town...


 

 Maybe the whole town is one big massive outhouse pit.[]


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