One Man’s Trash is Another Man’s Treasure (or Clark the Shitter’s Full!)

The Accidental Time Capsules Hidden Beneath Old Outhouses
Every December, without fail, I return to one of the great American Christmas traditions: quoting National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation way more than medically recommended.

And every year, one line in particular rings in my head: “Clark, the shitter was full!”

Cousin Eddie probably meant it as a warning, but to historians and archaeologists across the country, those words might as well be a treasure map.  Because here’s the little-known truth:
America’s old “full” outhouses have become some of the richest treasure troves of historical artifacts ever discovered.

I know—that sentence sounds like it belongs in the “things my students wish they could unhear” category. But hear me out. As a social studies teacher and historian, I’ve read countless accounts of people digging behind abandoned homesteads and discovering antique bottles worth hundreds, coins worth thousands, and oddities that belong in museums… all buried in the least glamorous place imaginable.

Welcome to the world of the privy dig, where one man’s trash—yes, literal trash—becomes another man’s treasure.

Why Outhouses Became History’s Perfect Time Capsules
Before indoor plumbing and city sanitation, the outhouse served two purposes:

1. A bathroom.
2. A convenient hole for dumping anything you never wanted to see again.

People tossed broken dishes, old letters, empty bottles, missing earrings, angry ex-lover mementos, embarrassing documents, and anything that “accidentally” fell out of pockets while nature was calling.

But here’s the part that blows my mind:
the environment inside these pits was nearly perfect for preserving artifacts.

Not kidding. In their own gross, unintentional way, outhouses created conditions archaeologists dream about:

Oxygen-poor conditions
Deep in the pit, low oxygen slows down decay. Glass stays clear. Leather stays flexible. Coins barely corrode.

Soft, protective layers
Every use added a new coating: dirt, ash, trash, and… well… “other things.”
Those layers acted like bubble wrap, gently burying artifacts deeper and deeper.

Nobody ever disturbed it
Once something fell in, it stayed in. Nobody was volunteering to poke around—meaning the pit became a sealed archive of ordinary life.

A chemical cocktail that preserved instead of destroying
Some waste components actually protected metals and slowed bacterial decay. The result?
Objects stay shockingly intact for 80, 100, even 150+ years.

It’s nature’s most unfortunate preservation lab.

So, What Have We Found Down There?
Here are some of the more incredible, unexpected, and occasionally hilarious treasures people have recovered from privy digs:

1. Rare 1800s Bottles (Worth Serious Money)
Cobalt blue medicines. Embossed pharmacy bottles. Fancy bitters bottles. Decorative perfumes.
Collectors go wild over these. Many have sold for hundreds or thousands.

2. Coins and Currency
If you’ve ever dropped your phone in a bathroom, imagine doing that… but with your only silver dime. Finds include:

• Civil War tokens
• Indian Head pennies
• Buffalo nickels
• Early silver coins
• Even a few gold coins (talk about a bathroom emergency!)

3. Jewelry
Cold nights plus slippery fingers = eternal resting place for:

• wedding rings
• brooches
• pocket watch chains
• hairpins
• lockets

Some were lost. Others were thrown in on purpose.

4. Children’s Toys
This category warms my historian heart:

• marbles
• porcelain doll heads
• tin soldiers
• wooden toys
• buttons

Apparently, every kid from 1850–1910 dropped at least one marble into the abyss.

5. Ceramics & Household Goods
Broken plates were tossed into a burn pile instead of carried there.
Later digs uncovered:

• transferware dishes
• stoneware jugs
• clay pipes
• tea cups

It’s the 19th-century version of “just chuck it.”

6. Medicines & Oddities
Many pits reveal a full 1800s medicine cabinet:

• laudanum vials
• patent medicine bottles
• hair tonics
• makeup jars
• early contraceptive devices
• “miracle” cure-all bottles

Some of these were probably tossed quietly after the town doctor wasn’t looking.

7. Paper Goods
People disposed of letters, receipts, and notes—sometimes scandalous ones.
Some survive well enough to read. If a family didn’t want it found, they chucked it.

Trash → Treasure → Story
Every artifact pulled from a privy adds a line to the story of a life we’d otherwise never know:
A broken pipe marked a father who used to sneak smokes.
A marble showing a child who played until the sun set.
A lost locket containing a faded portrait.
A medicine bottle hinting at illness.
A tossed wedding ring whispering about heartbreak.

The outhouse, of all places, holds the most honest archaeology we have. Not the fancy stuff.
Not the “best foot forward” family portrait. Just the stuff people lived with, used, lost, broke, hid, or threw away. And isn’t that the real heart of history? Not kings and battles, but the life buried beneath our feet.

So, the next time you watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and Cousin Eddie proudly announces that “the shitter’s full,” take a moment to laugh… and then remember: Somewhere out there, behind an old farmhouse or cabin, that exact sentence might mean a pit full of antique treasures waiting for a lucky historian to rediscover them.

One man’s trash, Clark, really is another man’s treasure.