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That old pottery kiln I found behind a shed near Santa Fe

Last month I was helping a friend clear out a property outside Santa Fe and stumbled on this beat up old wood fired kiln just sitting in the weeds. It was Three years ago that I started messing around with local archaeology groups, and this find felt like a real link to the past. The kiln had a date carved into the brick that read 1892, and there were still fragments of unglazed pots inside. I asked around and a retired potter told me it was probably used by early Spanish settlers. Has anyone else ever found something like that just sitting out in the open?
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the_terry
the_terry5d ago
Huh. Funny how that works, finding old handcraft stuff just sitting around. I see it a lot actually, not just with pottery or forges but with old tools and furniture too. My neighbor found an old hand-forged axe head in his crawlspace last spring, had a date from the 1870s stamped on it. Makes you wonder how many everyday things from a hundred years ago are still out there, just waiting to be stumbled on in places people stopped looking decades ago.
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daniel_gonzalez
Bro 3 forges? That's wild but also... are we sure half these stories aren't just people finding rusty scrap metal and getting too excited? @smith.nancy's buddy Mike probably thought he found a legendary artifact when it's just an old burner from the 70s. 😅
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smith.nancy
Talked to my buddy Mike who found an old blacksmith forge in his barn in Colorado last year. He said it had initials and a date from 1891 scratched into the metal.
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