How many of you found garbage buried around your place from past owners?

[paulsharvey]

Ive seen some stuff about the last leg of the transsiberian rail road, the loop that goes north of lake baikal, finished in the 1960s? or so, that they left dozers, cranes, trucks, ect when finished, for multiple reasons. Partly, not a for profit company, but also cause it wasnt worth the trouble to bring them back out.

Without looking at a map, I think it went way north to Yakutsk from Novosibirsk, rather than follow the Amur river to Valdivostok,

 

[RjCorazza]

Interesting. I don't have it so bad as many here.
My property has been farmed since the mid 1600's or so, and I occasionally find metal that dates to at least the 1800's. Mostly harness related equipment of all things.
The land became a large dairy operation in the 40's through 80's, and from that era I find cow tags and assorted modern hardware and chain. When the farm was sold off and demolished they left a huge amount of unreinforced concrete debris buried all over. That was a problem 25 years ago when I put a fence in, and again recently when I had a small pole barn built. EVERY hole hit a piece of concrete, some small, some large slabs. There was a 100x300' loafing shed and (3) tile silos that were demolished and spread out everywhere.

 

[Jstpssng]

It was standard practice pull a car over a ditch, perpendicular, so you could crawl under to change oil easily, with the added bonus of no oil tray needed, just drain it in the ditch

My father used to dump it on the gravel driveway to keep the dust down, a practice he ended around 1970.

I once saw a camp outhouse perched across a stream channel as you describe. They must not have been brook trout fishermen, at least not in that stream.

 

[Highlandr]

My father used to dump it on the gravel driveway to keep the dust down

My grandfather did the same. And put burnt oil in a sprayer and "treat" rough-cut lumber used for cattle pens and loading chutes.

Drain and flush the radiator wherever the vehicle sat. It's just "water".

 

[not2old]

I have to admit to pouring my waste motor oil around the fence posts in my yard in the mid 1970's. Everyone did it then. A relative used it to preserve the cedar shingles on his parent's house. That house was torn down when over seventy years old with the original roof.

 

[Jstpssng]

I still know people who apply old engine oil to their truck frame every year, and others who use Bar&Chain oil as a preservative.

 

[rumwrks]

I'm sure there is an explanation on why buried glass will work up to the surface 60,70 years later!!!

Frost heaves, they'll endlessly push rocks up to the surface as well. If I had a dollar for every hour I spent picking rocks right where we'd picked them all the year before as a kid I'd have been paid a lot better than I was ($0) hah.

I dug up two engine blocks and a busted bulldozer tread in the process.

I remember when I worked out by the Hanford site and they dug up a fully intact still all there D8 that was to hot to get near without a rad suit on. There was a lot of speculation about how THAT ended up there (as far as I know no one actually knows or if they do it's not for the likes of us to know..). Back in the 40's and 50's (and probably 60's and early 70's if we're honest) they just dumped a ton of .. really not good.. stuff on the ground. Really makes the old motor oil in a hole in the ground look like kids play.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

My land had a lot of junk when I got it, but over 20 years I've gotten much of it collected. I call winter "finding season."

There was a large pile where a building had been and collapsed, then over the years whatever wasn't wanted was thrown onto it. Then it got overgrown with weeds.

One winter, when the weeds were dormant, I went through that pile. I would use the tractor forks to pick up a section, then sort through it.

Stones went on a stone wall.
Plain wood went on a burn pile.
Metal went to a scrap yard.
Everything else went into a dumpster.

About a quarter of the pile went in the dumpster; it held 7,000 pounds when I was done. There was a ping-pong table in there, carpet, shingles, all kinds of plastic.

I was left with a pile of dirt. I smoothed it with the box blade, which revealed more junk to be sorted. Repeat the process until I was able to smooth the pile without finding any more junk.

It's now a very nice spot, it's grass which I mow about once a year. I buried my dog nearby.

 

[rangerfredbob]

At my place I find stuff occasionally, when I built my shop while digging the holes for the posts I hit lumber a few inches down... had to dig 50" deep if I remember right, 13 of the 14 holes took 2 bags of concrete, by the time I was done with that one hole I had made a form that took 10 bags and I put like 2 yards of gravel in packed every 6"... it was about 6' deep and 5' across. There's a truss company 4 miles away and apparently they got loads of scrap to burn in the fireplace and when the property was foreclosed they buried that with a backhoe... so I dug up lumber and nail plates for several days, ended up renting an excavator... that I was also able to pull the 5 fir stumps with so not a huge loss...

Last year I did some tilling around the pond berm and found two disc harrow spacers and one bar from an old spike harrow that had one spike on it... one year while digging the pond out some I found a roll of barb wire and a really rusted 6' chunk of chain...

 

[quicksandfarmer]

My land has been a farm since about 1683. There are a few spots where buildings used to be where every time I dig I find things. Mostly rusted pieces of iron. Every now and then something recognizable like a wagon wheel rim or brass sleigh bells. It's pretty common to find a tool that someone set down along a stone wall a long time ago and forgot about.