The Field Guide to American Trash: The Hunt for Historical Treasures Underground and Underwater

Whether it's bottle digging, scuba and fresh water snorkel, sea glassing, or even outhouse (privy) digging, there is history waiting to be found all around you! Imagine it’s 1840, and a tired old man in dusty tattered work clothes, smoking a corn cob pipe, takes the last swig from his bottle of rum then tosses it onto the ground. Eventually it gets buried by the leaves.For almost two hundred years the bottle lays there undisturbed until you are lucky enough to discover it again and hold it in your hands. It wasn’t in a museum and it wasn’t in a private collection. It just went from his hands into yours. It is mind boggling! In A Field Guide to American Trash, author Bram Hepburn takes us with him into the woods, scuba diving to the bottom or rivers, and to any other place that our American forefathers tossed their trash. Most trash from the 1800’s or before has decomposed or disintegrated over the years, but glass, pottery, and some hard metal relics have survived the generations, and are hidden all around us waiting to be found.After forty of years enjoying this “fascinating hybrid of dumpster diving and urban archeology”, Hepburn shares the trade secrets and tips that might help you find a jackpot of historical treasure in your own neighborhood!This thoughtfully written guide has colorful sections on Sea Glass (the oceans gems of old trash), snorkeling fresh water rivers and lakes, as well as metal detecting for historical treasure that once belonged to people from another time. The hobby itself is wide ranging, and will take you through the brilliant autumn foliage of New England tote roads, into the darkest corner or a ten foot deep Civil War era privy pit, all in search of an intimate connection with the people of previous generations. Read more