Bottles and... Bones?!? Digging 100 year old historic dumps.

hi I'm Alex arts bull and I've been buying and selling antiques since I was 9 years old from basements to scrap yards I'll look just about anywhere I can to find lost antiques and collectibles and sometimes I'll go big and buy everything with my wife and kids we run an antique shop in Edmonton Alberta Canada filled with some of the most unique items we can find I never know what's going to happen or who I'm going to meet this is our life this is our adventure and this is curiosity home honey [Music] if you want to get to the roots of a city where it first began a lot of times you have to start downtown and then work your way to the river because most early settlements started here down by the river and then slowly as they figured out things flooded or as buildings grew taller they would move up the hill now in our case a lot of our early trade settlements happened in the 1700s right by this River Valley and I'm headed down to the 109 Street bridge here in Edmonton often referred to as the high level bridge because well it's high up and it's level and on the south side of the banks around the turn of the century there used to be a lot of infrastructure and buildings that were flooded in 1915 those are now gone but the foundation and some of the early human remnants still remain hopefully we're gonna find some cool treasures I'm back on my bike let's go check it out okay I'm getting close there is our legislature which is our main government building for our province it's kind of like a state capital in the United States that's what ours is these are the old train tracks that go across a high level bridge at one time it used to have mainline on it and two streetcars went on either side so it had three lanes and my great-grandmother told me it was pretty terrifying when the wind would pick up and shake those cars on top of the bridge but this means that we're very close to our destination because the other side of this bridge is where we're gonna find our sight [Music] [Applause] [Music] I've arrived at my destination and you might be asking well how do you know this is the spot you want to be at well there's the bridge historically from my research I could see that there was at one time houses and structures and even a brick factory down here so we're gonna do a little investigating along the bank and see if there's any remnants of those old structures or buildings okay sometimes you can look where there's been erosion and find some remnants aha some remnants of our past see all the bricks that was either part of a building or leftovers from when there was a brick plant down here either way I think it's safe to say I'm in pretty much the right location you can learn a lot from the sides of a riverbank you look at the top you can see there's lots of brick here this great line that's volcanic ash so then we start to get into kind of prehistoric history from that point down this area is known to contain dinosaur bones and fossils and things of that nature I don't think I'm gonna find any of that today well I can't ever know I'm looking for things that are made out of metal and to do that I have to peek over where not many people probably go and that's finally way down by the river and toss in my magnet and see what comes up made it down the side of the embankment my thoughts are that if someone had a factory or houses at the top of this hill they in the old days would have just thrown their garbage and other things down the hill towards the river sadly that's what they did i chained my bike up to a tree up there I'm not far from it so unless somebody brought a saw with them I should be pretty safe oh look there's already I'm this isn't metal but look there's bits of old pottery so my theory might be correct and I would think that over years of rain and sediment and erosion that we might find some metal in that water to somebody's old China down at the bottom okay well here goes nothing I'm gonna try and untangle this I've got as much length as possible ok let's go fishing no I can kind of see first pole nothing I did feel it catch on something though so I'm gonna try that again I'm gonna try it slower looks like an old spike maybe off a boat like a bent over cribbing spike some square head nails I mean there's certainly been activity here for a long time be nice to find something like a mold coin or an axe head but sometimes you get what you get much arrested metal do you see something a little closer to the surface bottom off an old bottle 1954 could have been a coke bottle or something you don't need a magnet to tell that this little piece sticking out of the side of the embankment here was once a big riveted piece of steel hmm look there's writing on that brick it says boo maybe it's from the Halloween brick factory the skies are starting to cloud over so I've switched out - my old Buick and I'm waiting on a friend who knows of a good site near here I'm kind of just a little bit away from downtown we're going to continue digging and hopefully he's got a lead on a cool stuff but to go digging around ads I'm gonna lock up the car and we'll go walk in through the woods I don't know where he is been a few minutes here oh there he is it's a good friend Zach hey Zach okay you look like you've been out digging somewhere and was it worth it it looks like you got yourself all dirty okay well we will have some more luck over here so okay I'm gonna let you lead the way I'll keep my distance and then now see we can find these are these are finds from earlier this is why you're all muddy yeah nice I'm guessing coyote yes yeah I'm some sort of little ashtray that I gotta get cleaned up all right well worse for wear yeah you do turn up some interesting things though so I'm curious to see where we're headed today yeah this site I've gotten a lot of good stuff from the site that we're going to so okay great we'll see what it downtown Edmonton is built on a variety of old abandoned mine shafts the neighborhood of Beverly itself has quite a few running underneath and occasionally you come across an area like this where there's sinkholes where the ground has started to collapse where a mine is underneath but we're not going there today we're headed off into the woods the wilderness near the River Valley on I guess we're on the university side yeah and we'll see if we can find an old dump site there - no I can see there's bricks here oh right in that right here on the side of the and you figure this was just the neighborhood dump so yeah oh yeah bits of bits of pottery yeah cups I mean just right on the surface to don't even have to dig there's a bedpost oh yeah look at that yeah always I figured crown on yeah or like a nice or something I see there's dishes up there yeah yeah this has all been dug out already but there's still quite a bit like over here okay yeah right on the path yeah those are nice patterns Japanese where I guess but yeah right on the path yeah you're just plowing that dirt well it's not too full of stuff yet so I'm not really worried about breaking anything hitting clay yeah it's where you can see the layers of where things have fallen over time like that but I don't really see anything too good in this layer probably head yeah I can see if there's a part of a plate or something right there anything on it just plain yeah yeah that's all right that looks like some little pottery right there it is what's left of it yeah I mean the goal is to try and find something intact right I think people forget that in the old days facilities for taking garbage were not what they are now no and people have come a long way I was noticing the massive anthill right there you want to stand too long in that spot no kidding if there's cement and what looks like part of old works and there were mines in this area at first glance you think well that curve maybe it's part of a wagon wheel or something but like you said it actually continues on yeah all the way through all the way through and down it could have been some sort of rail cart system or who knows hey look there's even a little bridge here somebody's put yeah I wonder where that went to you can well you can kind of see where it's concave right there that maybe that was a mine shaft or something and it's fallen in well there's so many mines in the inventory value that are undocumented too because people put test hits oh and yet people will just go digging too we are definitely getting close it's all kinds of debris lying around in this area bricks and parts of buildings fine I think you use a milk bottle that's broken but oh it's yeah okay northern Alberta dairy pool milk drink for help that's too bad that would have been a neat bottle yeah it would have been now they're just lying on the surface yeah well you know as we walk around I'm sure that you know the the winter frost is permafrost has pushed a lot of stuff to the surface - yeah it goes all through here there's hmmm okay well let's do some diggin I wonder if people think that urban explorers have no soul if that's the case there's one right there ma pop pop pop walk yeah my first shovel full bits of old pottery probably part of a tea cup or something yeah I told pattern is you wonder if the rest of it's there last week you were digging and you found a coca-cola push bar yeah that was pretty nice yeah and you know the nice thing when you find a porcelain-enameled sign like that even if it's been buried the colors still stay really really well yeah yeah as long as the person didn't get worn off it protects it really you can dig them up out of the ground in fact I've done that a couple times myself yeah so that would be ideally that'd be like my score of the day would be we can find an old sign there is a lot of metal yeah I see that there's scrap metal all over the place I mean who knows even like sometimes these old sheets of metal could have been signed at one point well know people take oil cans and unroll them and use them as roofing dad there's there's a good possibility anything okay that part of the bowl Langly pottery company Burslem England that's what that says and yeah it did have a Canadian maple leaf in the middle yeah well it's an older piece so that means this is probably judging from that milk bottle if we're probably in a 1940's or older dump sites okay yeah I was looking this as a piece off of a crock Imperial probably like a maybe a two or a five gallon you know surprisingly look there's an old sink know if you can see it there I'll zoom in that would probably clean right up we we dug one out of the when we were doing that renovation on the house out of the backyard been sitting there for probably 50 years and it's in use now if a person get over to that sink you could haul it out of here and use it again but if there's a sink that means there's probably there could be some industrial stuff hidden down here like signs and who knows what else I'm gonna do some searching down this way it's like they purposely cut a hole out of the bottom which is interesting so I wonder what it was maybe they were using it as a like a cake pan or something yeah that could be possible that's interesting yeah I was trying to get closer to that sink right there and I looked down and this has been kind of a natural run off over the years and there is a pile of stuff a hook somebody's shoe maybe there was a last guy that tried walking down here he lost his shoe he's like oh man but he was down here in dress shoes well I'm not wearing the best word for this either I get throw mine in the wash actually there's a bottle right in front of me whoo I don't know what I thought that was it felt to me like a wild purple animal running towards me is it's intact yeah there's an intact old Welch's grape juice bottle full of muddy muck but it's all there just sitting there maybe I'll throw this up to you all right now hang on I'll bring it up to my own stuff I don't want you to try and fall down a cliff you got it you could budget I know is a front crack or anything is that just a leaf okay well if you somehow we can chuck it back up on the trail behind you yeah see if we get that up okay Zach managed to pull this thing up surprisingly I got to be careful because it's it just rained the last couple days so it's really slippery did you uncover some bottles down there to buy your foot shards yeah I see that that sink is pretty well could be used again that's like a teens 20s sort of bathroom sink neat that looks to be part of a stove right there yeah hang on I'll see if I can get through watch this'll turn out to be like poison ivy or something let's see enamel where you don't uncover the next dr. Seuss book the rat in the Hat oh I hear rustling that's not you falling down the hill a bucket okay you didn't kick the bucket okay okay you're just like deep on this cliff face here parts of timbers and structures they could have knocked a whole building over for all I know just notice I don't know if you can see but there's a what looks like either wrought iron fence or wrought iron bed frame I think it's a bed frame and there's bottles right by it a whole bunch of stuff you can see they they kind of took the threads off the top of it there see if I can pull that down so if you guys can see this lying here somebody has taken at one point an old wrought iron bed frame and they've linked it with multiple other wrought iron bed frames into a fence so this is a fence that goes all the way up into the trees made out of old bed frames see that yeah we just walked right past I didn't even notice it oh yeah I can't don't know what a queit says let's see gleaming Oh hair hair neat it's uh I think it's meant for like either shine or for styling your hair oh they're not terribly old no it's not a plastic cap on yeah so that's not terribly old but still yeah someone had parts of her car down here that's probably a lot of coffin old 40 Chev or something like that looks a lot like the one that I have in my art actually here's part of an old shoe real old shoe it's completely taken apart or deteriorated they might have actually piece it out to use the leather off it for something it's a fender off the bicycle recognize that right away you know it's a shame that there's all this trash lying down here I guess the cost to send somebody down here to clean it up would probably be pretty astronomical and so here at rocks former neighborhood dump basically just strewn all about it's kind of sad parts of a jar yeah I see there's a couple intact jars you can kind of hear those shovel folds there you're hitting something yeah bits of bottles yeah yeah careful reading Neal I don't you too you know something Lawson so there's remnants of you know it kind of looks like this is a natural area for the water to run down to yeah carrying all the light stuff and bottles and ya know using the bottle yeah so what got you interested in digging out in the woods and don't say burying bodies cuz I'm out here by myself with you okay so walk around and find places like this so ya follow a trail and see where it goes yeah I know you've brought in some cool stuff into the store Oh joking about bodies and then you find a massive bone that looks like it's been cut well that's gross I imagine it's animal and let's hope it's not human that would be really disturbing to be in the River Valley and dig up human remains okay now I'm starting to get worried because we came down here looking for bottles and whatever but look I don't want to touch it but that could very well be it a human bone that's been cut on either ends lets sure hope not but yeah that looks like it could be I don't know part of an arm or leg bone god I sure hope I don't find a I guess if we find a skull and verify its human we're gonna have to call somebody I've decided not to keep digging that same spot a lot of broken glass and bottles and those bones are frankly giving me a little bit of the heebie-jeebies now they're probably just some buddies to meet back in the old days they would cut up chunks like that and thrown at a pot and that would just give you the flavor for you stew but you know I'm not an expert at identifying bone so I don't want to turn over a human head in there anything is more of it as that sounds we're in the River Valley where nobody's been digging in a really long time so who's to say what's back here but we're gonna keep on our adventure and see if we can find anything else definite signs of some debris and rubble in this area we've lost contact with Zak somewhere down in the woods there's a let off a teapot or something right there yeah that's actually all there particularly through the trees up here there's a bit of a clearing and it looks like there's things all the way running up the side of the bank how old it is I don't know but we'll find out came down the path and emerged at the river as much as we're looking at this you know for old dump sites and things that have been left away for a while it's a pretty little town and there's lots more to see and do than just come and look for garbage that's for sure I am perched on top of a fallen tree and Zak is just burrowing like a little fox after a mouse but it sounds like you're hitting glass that's something it's not that you hit something hard while you're digging over there I think what we found is maybe a whole building that was pushed over the ledge is there's parts of a wall with the mortise still in the brick there's probably parts of a complete brick structure down here and that would explain all the other rubble the cement they probably just pushed it right off the edge there's what I usually do with my wife and I bring little cars home I push her right off the edge but she's still with me though so we're okay see that's the top of the valley with this houses and it goes all the way down it's fairly steep actually you can't tell from the angle but it's a pretty darn steep if I slip I'm gonna be rolling but it looks like somebody at one point put a little tether there to attach a rope to you guys see that we're not the first ones that come down this way somewhere somebody ran out of time that is the winding crown off of probably a 1930s or so pocket watch so it might be a usable part you know this little bit here neat are you going right you going swimming is that what's happening yeah where'd you find right there oh yeah I wonder you had so much snake oil back then you know it'll cure everything that's probably what this was yeah Sloane's I'll look it up I'll see if I can find an ad for it yeah okay but most of the time it was just alcohol yeah you won't feel your problems you won't care about your problems any more drinks loans liniment all your problems will fade away because you will be completely tipsy but if that that is a fairly early bottle so you might have hit a spot there where there's more yeah let's say part of a pipe maybe it's part of a broken model it looks like it's steel yeah I think that's metal ass but there's definitely some glass in here though so this looks a lot more promising than where we were before yeah nice to find one good intact bottle okay yeah another one yeah it's kind of a weird shape yeah that could have been hot sauce or vinegar another jar the little part of the lid gold coins inside hey you never know yeah looks like you got a good spot there I think so yeah part of teacups there's a lot of glass like yeah every shovel you can kind of hear here we should save these these are honey more unique yeah definitely all right those are keepers hoping if the splash is from BC that'll have some possible oh that's that's complete no like a whiskey bottle or yeah this is definitely a whiskey bottle it's totally 40s Art Deco that's pretty nice actually yeah yeah there's a lid on it Oh Scott what's learned of the lid but later cork in there yeah thank you screw top but it's nice yeah okay okay yeah it looks like every shovel has something in it yeah cops never seem to make it no I know I've never I never really find those hole oh um there's see that's just a just a cup syntax June oh it's this is a medalta hotel where so the hotel cup yeah so is it just missing the handle off it I don't I don't think this one had a handle my degree where your thumb is maybe or maybe not well let's put it in the keep pile whoa well bag it see bad there's no hotel name on it that would be nice well yeah that would be the icing on the cake yeah well we're gonna call it today is a busy day out digging around found some cool bottles well please act it any way but you found much more cool stuff than that yeah well what do you go out next tomorrow okay yeah well what's the water goes down to be able to some of the other historic dump sites yeah well cool I'll have to check out what finds tab you know if you find out of the coke time you got to come see me oh for sure thanks for coming out today yeah definitely Thanks well that's it for today guys thanks for watching today's episode hopefully those bones weren't human likely not but still you find a bone like that yellow creeped out so a few bottles a lot of fun and I'll have to do this again sometime we'll see y'all soon don't forget to subscribe and bye family [Music]

Channel: Curiosity Incorporated

Views: 91,321

Keywords: iMovie, curiosity inc, barn find, dump, garbage dumps, treasure hunting, antiques, curioosityinc, magnet fishing

Id: -8itBQ7ZHAE

Length: 29min 46sec (1786 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 30 2020