BUXTON, N. D. — An ancient well may not be the first position you can think of when searching for buried treasure. But for Tom Askjem, yesterday’s baths are a treasure trove of data that tell stories of the past.
The 31-year-old from Buxton has made a career digging bottles, dish fragments and other forgotten relics from the afterlife into open-air wells, many of which in red River Valley date back to the 1870s. He and his search partner, Jake Cariveau of East Grand Forks, the country in search of abandoned artifacts and their long-lost stories.
You can know a lot about other people from beyond from what they threw away, Askjem says. outdoor bathroom.
“It’s attractive to combine the pieces of the puzzle, more or less, of who lived there and their lifestyle,” he said.
In older wells, pre-farm goods were probably brought through farmers. The wells of wealthy families are ornate tableware, while the wells without many pieces possibly belonged to a circle of deficient relatives or a circle of relatives who lived modestly. Sometimes wells dating back to the Spanish flu involve more vials of medicine than older wells.
Askjem’s delight in living on a farm in the 1870s sparked his interest in history and he began his career as a well digger. His circle of relatives moved from Grand Forks to the farm near Buxton, North Dakota, after the Grand Forks flood in 1997. .
“There were old wagons in the woods, the space had a Victorian-era vibe and was largely original, with the original hardware and carpentry of the doors,” he said. “So, I just made history. “
Askjem dug his first open-air well on the circle of relatives farm when he was in sixth grade. He discovered the well while his circle of relatives cleared the forest with a tractor and dug up ash from stoves and glass.
“I read online that ash was thrown into old outdoor wells to neutralize the smell, so I started digging,” he said.
He spent the summer digging the hole on his family’s farm and then began asking other local landowners to dig into the holes of annexed buildings and abandoned places on their farms. He has now dug over 1300 holes in the United States, from coast to coast to coast.
Cariveau made his first excavation with Askjem in 2016. Se knew and Askjem had told Cariveau to dig in open-air wells. But Cariveau thought it was an interest, until he accompanied Askjem on an excavation.
“I was a little surprised when he started taking out some of the bottles, they’re absolutely intact, and then it all came together,” he said.
Through years of delight and research, Askjem has learned to identify what the other types of bottles would have been used for, and more than the pieces themselves, Askjem is interested in the stories they tell. The fragments of bottles he digs up can verify or whole the accounts of the stalls he excavates.
“A lot of biographies about those pioneers don’t tell the whole story,” he said. “Sometimes I locate wells filled with bottles of alcohol or pharmacy bottles, so infrequently those addictions were used as a position to get rid of contraband, either through local law. or through the opinion of the house, so to speak. “
Cariveau says they excavate with an ancient price that is first presented to local museums. Askjem and Cariveau keep some pieces for their private collections, and everything else is given to the owners or re-entered.
In January, Askjem and Cariveau introduced a “Under the Plains” YouTube channel, where they post videos of their excavations and discoveries. The channel has about 4720 subscribers and its most viewed video, an excavation in Yankton, South Dakota, has more than 160,000 views.
Cariveau and Askjem began recording their excavations two years ago, and Cariveau began assembling videos in the winter of 2021. He is surprised by the good fortune of the channel.
“It took off faster than expected,” Cariveau said. “Obviously, it’s gratifying to see that his paintings are paying off. “
Askjem has also published two e-books, one on North Dakota soda bottles and the other on Nebraska soda bottles, and others are on the way. He is also running an e-book about an excavation he conducted at Fort Pembina in Pembina, North Dakota, and two other e-books.
Not everyone is satisfied with the efforts. Askjem says other people think he is similar to a grave robber; some question that he does not have a degree in archaeology; some might think that the pieces of history deserve to remain underground.
“I’m not a grave robber. I don’t dig mounds or anything like that,” he said. “I focus on the exterior pits of the pioneer era and dig on personal land with the permission of the owner. “
Moreover, he says, if it remains on the ground, we cannot know anything about it.
“There’s this kind of cliché that says, ‘If we don’t know where we came from, we probably don’t know where we’re going,'” he said. “The most attractive thing for me is to realize how human nature has not changed. “