Outhouse Archaeology

Two 150-year old outhouse pits at Aurora's 1857 Tanner House Museum, 305 Cedar St., will be dug up at 9 a.m. Saturday, June 15. Volunteer diggers led by Aurora's Mike Renaud, a local outhouse researcher, will excavate 1857 and 1870 pits at the Aurora pioneer mansion. After recorders log objects uncovered, artifacts will be cleaned, studied and cataloged.The dig is sponsored by the Aurora Historical Society. Renaud will lecture at a Sunday Historical Society meeting next winter. The public is invited to the dig.
Outhouse excavating background
Before indoor plumbing and municipal garbage collection, 1800s families dumped trash into their privy pit.  Despite annual cleanings, a pit would become unusable after a decade or two and a new one would be dug.  Bone, glass, ceramics and even sometimes leather and wood survived for long periods underground.
Renaud used a steel probe to sample the likeliest spots on the acre-sized Tanner estate. He found two locations that, based on the type of soil he found, may have been outhouse sites built in 1857 and 1870. Outhouses were abandoned when indoor plumbing arrived in the 1890s. Media contact: Mary Clark Ormond, Aurora Historical Society president, 630-306-5491  or maryclarkormond@yahoo.com.--END--