IN 1825 the ERIE CANAL...

[PULLTABBY]

In 1825 some parts of the ERIE Canal were filled in by trash and debris. The city of Buffalo began digging it out for expansion in 2005 and found the "dumps site".
This SATURDAY and SUNDAY the town of Tonawanda will allow folks to dig the pills of dirt dumped their for a $5.00 entrance fee. I never made it on Sat. but will give it a go today from 9:00 am - 4:00
ONLY ABLE TO KEEP ONE ARTIFACT... though as this is an Archeological dig and all items are turned over.
I hope to get some neat photos and maybe a keeper...
Local news station showed many old bottles and some toys & coin found already
Will post any finds later
HH

 

[James N.D.]

n/t

 

[jb]

Should be something to see all the neat finds come out of the piles. Our club did a similar like thing several years ago at an old Washington State Park that is a Fort built many years ago to protect the Coast of Washington, entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca access to Seattle and other Ports. They were redoing the Parade Grounds and assigned a surveyor and State Representative to our group and said we could hunt only certain areas and were to dig each target and to put it in a baggie and back into the ground with a flag attached to the spot. They then surveyed it in and we were allowed to keep any coins newer than 1945 and were actually watched fairly close. Good luck to you on your outing.

 

[PULLTABBY]

The day started out with the first coin of the day and the only only by the time I left..1901 Indian I gave to them.[attachment 32804 1901Indian.jpg]
I kept this bottle as it was the only one I could find WHOLE.....[attachment 32801 mybottle.jpg]
I forgot to bring my H2O and as soon as it got hot I was on my way back home...
Bulldozers kept moving piles and many bottles smashed. As this was the only time I could get there and the last chance to dig was today.....
Only wished I could have found many other coins for them to display....There was about 10 other detector duds there and noooo luck...NOTICE the power lines we had to deal with ...
Bottom photo is some of the other digs through the day..
All in all had a good time and got to show a few folks the XS detecter and it's only find.
Locally will be Broadcasted on News ch.2 at 6:00 p.m. WNY area
Thanks for looking and HH

 

[Erik]

Hi, Interesting opportunity! I didn't quite understand what you said though....when did they locate the dump site?

Too bad the bulldozers were smashing all the whole bottles....were they collecting the fragments as well or just the wholes? At the end of the weekend what sort of coins/relics were found? There's still probably a lot of good stuff in that dirt....what happens to it now and can people still detect there?

 

[PULLTABBY]

I'm pretty sure that Buffalo began digging in 04 or 05 and dumped it in N.Tonawanda site off Sheridan DR. It was only a two day event so I don't think they will allow any one back in there. By now the dump is probably being leveled to make room for new rubbish to pile on.
What a shame only two days of digging though.
I'm not sure how to get a total of what was found and a list of the artifacts that I'm sure is quite extensive. But as I left there Sunday around 1:30ish only two coins were found for both days...
I may check with the local news stations to see how to obtain that info....
My cards was full on camera or I would have taken more photos.
HH

 

[Erik]

Sounded very interesting....what was the other coin found? Also what will they do with all of the items that were turned over. Sounds to me like they had a real archaeological opportunity there -- would be a shame to cover it all up rather than get everything out that they can - even the broken bottles can be very interesting and pieced back together. Did you find any other items with your detector?

 

[PULLTABBY]

The other coin was a mutilated Merc Dime (not sure of the date)...
After finding the penny and being interviewed by the local Television crew that was there I began to dig for bottles as I have never done so before and have been detecting coins for close to 20 years. I put the detector away as there was close to 15 other guys there with one (thinkin they would find more coins)....