What’s so special about an outhouse?
Privies, or outhouses, are almost like time capsules in disguise. On the surface they are almost undetectable, showing nothing but grass (in our case, an asphalt parking lot) and sometimes a slight depression. But just a couple of feet below the surface can be beautiful pieces of glass, china, and other treasures. Before our society had regular trash pickup or recycling, people would throw these things in the outhouse pit. Over time, any compostable or organic material in the pit is completely converted to new “clean” soil. Interesting finds in the past have included glass medicine bottles, dolls, toys, bones, belt buckles, chamber pots, just to name a few. Why THIS outhouse? Here at the Byron Museum, we’ve been digging up outhouses for over 10 years, and have an exhibit made entirely of objects we’ve uncovered from Byron area outhouses. The Lucius Read house which is part of our museum is one of the oldest homes in Byron. We recently found a map from 1893 which shows the location of t
