This page contains treasure hunting stories I have written.

Treasure in my Backyard

Sometimes treasure is right beside you and you don't even a metal detector to locate it. In 1991 my wife and I moved to the Pittsburgh area. Not being from this area, my metal detecting was put on hold as we bought a home and started a family. One fall day I decided to explore the wooded area beside our house. I followed what appeared to be an old road with an old wire fence beside it. As I walked into the woods, I came across bottles laying everywhere on top of the ground. I had stumbled across an old dump from about the late 1940's , and this was 30 yards from my house. Most of the surface bottles were modern ketchup or pickle bottles or broken. As I looking around, I found an area that was slightly raised with very loose dirt. I decided to explore here first. I picked up a piece of metal on the ground and started digging. The digging was very easy with lots of pieces of broken glass. After a few minutes of digging a marble appeared. This was the the first of about 40 found. These were found all over the dump area, and never more that one at a time. I searched this dump in my spare time in the next few months, whenever I had a free hour or so. Another glass item found in abundance were what appears to be some type of small glass or shotglass. These were found all over the dump, sometimes 3 or 4 in an area. I kept about 70 of them. After awhile, I just left them there in a pile. This appeared the norm in this dump, one small area with a abundance of an item. The next one was glass mason jar lids. In a three foot square area I dug over 40 of these lids. The bottles recovered so far were small pill and cosmetic bottles. I knew that larger bottles were here somewhere, as I had found plenty of broken milk bottles and mason jars. Then my luck changed one rainy spring day. I decided to try a different spot by a large tree that I had not checked before. After 10 minutes of clearing the leaves and top layer of broken glass, I came to what I called the "large bottle" area of the dump. In this area , and this area only, I recovered milk bottles from a local dairy, clear and green quart mason jars and 3 large "Crown" mason jars. This dump still continued to baffle me as why certain items were found in certain areas. Another interesting find was of two small soda bottles. They were clear with nothing on the sides. The bottom of one had an image of Howdy Doody embossed on it, while the other had an image of Clarabell the Clown. (See photo). Another item found in abundance were small "shot" glass like items. These were found everywhere, and I have yet to know what they are. I continue to search this site as time permits, and rarely fail to find something interesting. This goes to show that you don't have to travel far to treasure hunt, it may be in your backyard.

Bottles Found in the dump

Some of the marbles found

All contents Copyright © 2000 Randy Steele