Hmm... And here's a link for the Call for Volunteers (12 yrs and older).
They were charged a $5 reg. fee...and got to "take an artifact home."  
"There is a need for empty liqour boxes to hold recovered bottles, and
newspapers and small boxes to protect miscellaneous fragile objects.

Donations to sustain the volunteers are also being sought, from portable
toilets to hot dogs and hamburgers and people to grill them."
http://www.greaterbuffalo.blogs.com/

Was trying to find a current article, on What was recovered...with
pics...but, didn't find any. ??

>-----Original Message-----
>From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On 
>Behalf Of David Babson
>Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2006 7:42 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Canal "Archaeology" in Buffalo
>
>Cause for minor encouragement--maybe.  Exceptionally poor way 
>to collect artifacts; almost no context.  Section 106 violation?
>
>D. Babson.
>
>
>
>
>Buffalo's 'Big Dig"  rescues trove of canal-era artifacts from the dump
>
>By Alan Oberst
>
>On the summer's most beautiful August weekend, over 400 people 
>appeared at a remote landfill outside of Buffalo, to dig in 
>the dirt, drawn there by the siren song of history.  The 
>challenge was to rescue canal-era artifacts recently trucked 
>there from Buffalo's Inner Harbor redevelopment project.  But 
>the artifacts they sought were thoroughly mixed with 100-plus 
>years of dirt and debris excavated from Buffalo's Commercial 
>Slip, once the western terminus of the Erie Canal.  So in an 
>event that bore the fitting moniker "The Big Dig," people came 
>from far and near, and the race was on to rescue as much 
>history as possible in two days.  Some arrived with nothing 
>more than a pair of gloves and determination.  Others brought 
>more sophisticated tools of the trade such as metal detectors. 
> But with all the material to go through, perhaps the most 
>useful equipment proved to be the backhoe-a tool capable of  
>surprising finesse in the hands of an experienced operator.
>
>What did two days of digging unearth?  All told, a bit of 
>everything, including leather shoes, marbles, silverware, 
>ceramics of all kinds, from an earthenware jug to an 
>eighteenth-century porcelain vase, likely the oldest find of 
>the weekend.  Surprising for debris from the "Commercial" 
>Slip, so much seemed derived from the domestic side of life-a 
>reminder that the canal was not only about commercial  
>freight, but was also home to families and the stuff of households.   
>Also found commonly were bottle after bottle after bottle, 
>which did nothing to belie the reputation of canawlers as a 
>hard-drinking bunch.  Surprisingly, though, some were milk 
>bottles, bearing the marks of long-closed Buffalo dairies.  
>Such marks were telltales signs to the practiced eyes of 
>artifact screeners who kept watch on the proceedings.
>
>Given the rough-and-tumble waterfront era represented by the 
>excavation, some diggers half-expected to find human remains, 
>perhaps from a victim who double-crossed one of Buffalo's 
>notorious "saloon bosses." Somewhat disappointed, perhaps, 
>diggers found only animal bones.
>Perhaps the biggest story was told by the most mundane yet 
>abundant artifacts in the dig-oyster shells.  Bushels of 
>oyster shells were  
>found, demonstrating the impact of the canal on Buffalo.  How?   
>Oysters-not native to Buffalo-began showing up by the boatload 
>from downstate shortly after the canal opened, humble heralds 
>of the canal revolution in transportation which opened an era 
>of economic development.  The location of the canal's Great 
>Lakes port in Buffalo  
>not only made her the Queen City, but made the world her oyster.    
>Buffalo grew to become the eighth largest city in the nation, 
>home to two presidents and last port of call for another, with 
>a cultural and architectural legacy rivaled by few cities in 
>the nation.
>
>How did Buffalo's Big Dig come about?  Its origin was in the 
>removal of 200 truckloads of debris excavated from the 
>Commercial Slip, accumulated throughout the 100-year operation 
>of the Erie Canal prior to embargement.  Although its removal 
>was a necessary part of the restoration of the slip, it was 
>originally hoped that the debris could have a proper 
>going-through on site.  But that was denied by the state 
>overseers of the Inner Harbor project, and for a time it 
>appeared that this historic material was doomed to vanish in 
>oblivion in a Tonawanda landfill.
>
>But with a stubbornness and tenacity that would have made Sal 
>the Mule proud, Tim Tielman, Executive Director of the 
>Campaign For Greater Buffalo Art, Architecture, and Culture 
>fought the good fight to get permission for volunteers to 
>screen the debris at the landfill itself.  He then called the 
>troops to arms.
>
>Why would over 400 people respond to the call, sacrificing 
>part of a beautiful summer weekend to work up a sweat digging 
>in the dirt in a landfill?  The central reason: they knew 
>their history was at stake,  
>and like all good canal buffs and preservationists, they responded.   
>Like those who saved the Day Peckinpaugh, and like those who 
>pulled from creeks piece by piece and block by block the 
>Aldrich Change Bridge and the Camillus aqueduct, canal buffs 
>and preservationists respond when their history-which is 
>really all our history-is at stake!
>
>Artifacts uncovered in the Big Dig are expected to be 
>displayed in a museum being planned on Buffalo's waterfront as 
>part of the Inner Harbor redevelopment.
>
>(Editor's note: Alan Oberst wrote an article for the Summer 
>issue of Canal Times chronicling Rochester's "Chill The Fill" 
>campaign).
>
>(caption) A team of archaeologists and volunteers work 
>feverishly to recover artifacts from a landfill near Buffalo.
>