‘Outhouse Archeologists’ come to Colfax

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX  —  You just never know what you might find at the bottom of an outhouse.

Not an existing outhouse, of course, but one from the late 1800s or early 1900s.

Mark Youngblood, whose business card identifies him as a “bottle digger,” and his partner in grime, Brian Mann, visited Colfax April 23 to scout out sites where outhouses were once situated.

Known as “outhouse archaeologists,” the two men dig up sites where outhouses once sat a hundred years ago or more, looking for artifacts.

Youngblood lives in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, and he has more than 40 years of experience in excavating outhouse pits, primarily with the intention of finding old bottles.

Although Youngblood and Mann had not necessarily planned to excavate that day in Colfax, they found one site on an alley off First Avenue that proved to be irresistible.

Outhouses were located just about anywhere on a property — sometimes right next to the house and sometimes on the edge of the alley — or anyplace in between, Youngblood said.

Youngblood and Mann use probes to test the sites to see if that is where they want to dig. Often there is a slight depression in the sod where an outhouse was once located.

Although to the casual observer it looks as though the probe pushes in just as easily in one spot as in another, Youngblood and Mann know exactly what to look for.

At the site on First Avenue, they discovered a “false bottom,” that is, a layer of clay, and underneath the clay is where they hit pay-dirt.

Procedure

To start excavating the site, Youngblood and Mann cut the sod into squares and set the sod off to the side.

Then they begin digging, placing the dirt on what turned out to be an old trampoline cover.

The trampoline cover is just the right size to hold dirt from a site, and it’s tough, durable and slides easily over grass, Youngblood noted.

As they reach the bottom of the pit, they begin to look for glass or other artifacts.

Almost anything imaginable ended up being thrown away in the outhouse — including shoes. And while the leather of the shoe is usually long gone by the time Youngblood and Mann discover it, the sole is often surprisingly intact.

If it is a men’s shoe, it will usually have a hole in the sole. If it is a women’s shoe, it usually does not have a hole, Youngblood said.

Sometimes the outhouse sites also are a treasure trove for old buttons, Mann noted.

Salad dressing

In the archaeological site on First Avenue, Youngblood and Mann found a variety of bottles, such as “My Wife’s Salad Dressing” (which was made in Chicago).

No one who was watching the dig had ever heard of My Wife’s Salad Dressing.

The My Wife’s Salad Dressing bottles actually are quite common, Youngblood said.

They also found an opium vial.

Opium was prescribed by physicians in the 1800s as a pain reliever. According to one website, during the American Civil War, the Union Army used 2.8 million ounces of opium tincture and powder and about 500,000 opium pills.

There was a tiny little bottle that had once held perfume, too.

And a five-pound butter crock that was intact.

And a white pitcher that had a crack but was otherwise in good shape.

Also a Bakelite syringe.

Surprisingly enough, even though the Bakelite syringe had not seen the light of day in a hundred years, the plunger moved up and down smoothly in the cylinder, and the cover turned easily, as if it had been opened just yesterday.

There also was a saucer with gold leaf around the edge, although the saucer came out of the hole in pieces, along with other pieces of ceramic with gold leaf that were probably pieces of the cup that went with the saucer.

Whiskey

And then there were the whiskey bottles.

Quite a few whiskey bottles.

A number of plain whiskey bottles.

But also one that was embossed with the name of the whiskey seller.

From Menomonie.

Mark Youngblood and Brian Mann could not believe their good fortune.

Although they’ve been looking for one of those particular bottles for years, and have dug up many sites in Menomonie and found smaller examples, this was their first one-pint size whiskey bottle with the name Ole O. Berg and Main St. Menomonie, Wis.

And not just one of the Ole O. Berg bottles — but two of them.

More than a hundred years ago, taverns would have whiskey shipped in by the barrel, and the tavern owner would fill his own bottles to sell, Youngblood said.

Sometimes the establishments would have the tavern owner’s name embossed on the bottle, he said.

Tavern owners could pick out the bottles they wanted from a catalog, and the bottles would be embossed with the tavern owner’s name, Youngblood explained.

“I might have known this would happen. I looked all over Menomonie, and on our first dig in Colfax, we find an Ole O. Berg,” he said.

Actually, the Ole O. Berg was good news, Youngblood said.

Colfax historian Troy Knutson had asked Youngblood and Mann if they would be interested in digging in Colfax.

The find of not one but two Ole O. Berg bottles guarantees that they will be back, Youngblood said.

Closing

When Youngblood and Mann are finished with a dig, they shovel the soil off the trampoline cover and back into the outhouse pit.

When the trampoline cover is light enough that it can be picked up, they dump the rest of the dirt in the hole.

Then they go about tamping down the soil, and after that, they replace the squares of sod.

When the squares of sod are fitted into place, they use shovels to tamp down the sod.

By the time they are finished, you would hardly know they had even been there.

More sites

Youngblood says he and Mann are always looking for permission to dig sites.

After the First Avenue site had been closed up, Youngblood, Mann, Knutson, and several other people, including the reporter for the Colfax Messenger, strolled up and down nearby alleys.

The alleys between Railroad Avenue and First Avenue, located in what is one of the oldest parts of town, yielded several sites that looked promising.

At the Vince Ross residence at the corner of First Avenue and Evergreen Street, Youngblood and Mann found an “oddity” in the bank next to the house.

The Ross residence once stood on the bank above Mirror Lake.

Although Mirror Lake is long gone today, Eighteen Mile Creek runs through the area.

While neither Youngblood nor Mann thought the spot at the Ross house was likely to have been an outhouse site, still it was unusual, and they decided they would come back to dig it another day.

Chippewa Valley

Youngblood and Mann will be doing a presentation about their archaeological efforts on Saturday, May 14, at the Chippewa Valley Museum in Eau Claire from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

If anyone has an outhouse site he or she would like excavated, you can contact Youngblood by e-mail at myoung6766@aol.com or call him at 1-651-329-0815.

Youngblood and Mann split whatever they find with the property owner.

For themselves, they keep what they have excavated until the end of the year, and then they divide it up between the two of them.

Youngblood and Mann thought they were going to end up bickering over the Ole O. Berg whiskey bottle.

Lucky for them there were two.