For all who have participated, or read, the recent exchanges on "Landfill",
you might be interested in that there will be a full-day
session at the SHA Annual Meeting (January 2001) in Long Beach on
"Archaeology of the 20th Century." It is organized and will be chaired
by Audrey Horning who has done 20th century sites in Appalachia. It
should be very interesting and wide ranging.

In regard to the probable lack of specific 20th century dumps at
individual sites, we may be more fortunate than one would expect.
I was born in 1941 and left New Haven in 1960 to go to college. During
the "New Haven Period" of my life, although we lived within the city
limits, our family usually had a dump!

1941-1947  - lived in Westville on the edge of the city and
        apparently maintained an illegal dump behind our rented
        house (I do not remember this myself but have been told).

1947-1950  - moved "downtown" near the Green and so had a very
        small urban backyard and could not have a dump.

1950-1958(?) - moved back to Westville and lived on the edge of
        West Rock Park. We maintined a fully illegal and quite large
        dump in a depression (hillside) going into the woods. We only
        put "solid waste" (bottles, cans, broken toys, etc.) in this
        dump but did so for years. Some sand was put over the dump
        on occasion. We also had a garbage pale set in the ground
        behind the house for all organic materials and the garbage
        man (or should I say, "sanitation worker") would walk around
        from the front, take the pale out of the ground and go back
        to the street to empty it in the the truck! (Image them doing
        that today.)

        I have no idea why we maintained the large illegal dump unless
        the New Haven Sanitation Department only took organic waste
        - but that sounds odd. I also am not sure why we closed the
        dump near the end of the 1950s and started to put all waste
        out on the street to be picked up.

        The point is that even in the 1950s in a fully urban setting
        with a municipal sanitation pick up system we still produced
        a large dump easily associated with out property lot. It is
        still there because when I returned to New Haven in the 1990s,
        after a 30 year break, I looked in the woods and found it
        although today it is not at all visible on the surface.

        I suspect there will be a lot more specific 20th century
        dumps then we might expect.

                                                Bob Schuyler
Robert L. Schuyler
University of Pennsylvania Museum
33rd & Spruce Streets
Philadelphia, PA l9l04-6324

Tel: (215) 898-6965
Fax: (215) 898-0657
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