Treasure hunt: Digging for trouble

Mail Tribune ^ | November 18, 2007 | Sanne Specht

[SunkenCiv]

The Oregon State Preservation Office informed him that digging up items on private property that are 75 years or older -- even with the property owner's permission -- must be witnessed by an archaeologist and signed off by the state. Mlasko, 44, has been following his passion for hunting glass since he was a young boy. He searches for bottles from the 1800s and early 1900s on private property in Northern California and Southern Oregon. He asks the owners for permission to look for old outhouses with a metal probe, then offers to give them everything he finds. Sometimes they let him keep what he finds, Mlasko said... After the "Cash and Treasures" episode ran, Mlasko received "anonymous threatening letters from so-called archaeologists," he said. His episode was savaged on a related Internet-based forum, Mlasko said. One post, signed Scott Wolf, associate archaeologist of ASM Affiliates Inc., ended a finger-wagging rant with the condemnation, "Your ignorance and irresponsibility makes me sick. SHAME ON YOU, SHAME ON YOU, SHAME ON YOU!"

[SunkenCiv]

Medford bottle collector Dale Mlasko received a warning letter from the state after his collection was featured in the Mail Tribune and on the Travel Channel. MT file photo

[SunkenCiv]

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[LongElegantLegs]

Inadvertent discovery of historic matter is not illegal.

Wow, how magnanimous is that?

[SunkenCiv]

Whew! That was close! ;’)

[hadit2here]

Don’t ever believe that you *own* property- it’s just rented from the State until they decide what they want to do with it.

[wildbill]

“Everything is context,” she said. “From those bottle-containing privies can come a wealth of other historical information of interest to archaeologists,” said White, adding that “everything from the types of bottles found to fossilized feces provide indicators about the people who lived there.”

well, ain’t that some s_ _ _!

[SunkenCiv]

One would think that, if so much is there to be learned, then a semi-pro old bottle collector wouldn’t be the only one in Oregon doing this. :’) Seems like crappy career to have though.