Episode 61: Buried Treasures & Uncovered Stories with Nicholas Pupera

Scott Vicknair, injury attorneys, we fight for the win.

Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the Overruled podcast, brought to you by the Scott Vicknair Law firm. I’m your host David Vicknair here and I have a very interesting guest today with a very interesting topic. Mr. Nicholas Prepara. Welcome to the Overruled podcast, Nick. And I’m excited to dig into what you were here to talk about, which is archaeology. But before we jump into that, Nick, can you tell everybody just a little bit about you, your, professional experience, and then we’re going to dive into what you and your family have been heavily involved in for a long time now in archaeology. So, yeah, yeah, I’m very happy to be here. Thanks for having me. Of course. Any chance I get to, share my passion with people and inform them of it, I, I jump on it. I’m from Nannallas, grew up, South Louisiana. My, my dad got me in at an early age, loving antiques, history. Began bottle digging when I was eight years old and, we’ve been doing it ever since.

And I love it. How many years now have you been digging, doing bottle digging? I’m currently 29, so 21 years. 21 years. Wow. It was, it was post Katrina. The year, about a year after Katrina. Yeah. When we really started. So, well, I love that you’re, that, you know, I feel like many of us, also being from South Louisiana, we end up becoming somewhat involved, purposely or not, of our own choosing, into what our parents, are interested in and whether that’s fishing or sports or anything like that. This is such a unique and incredible thing that your dad and your family was really involved in, that he got you into and having a passion for. So maybe tell our listeners a little bit about what is it about archaeology and we’ll get into the nitty-gritty of it in a second because I have a lot of questions, like we were joking about before the show. Really into this topic. But what is it about archaeology that’s really made you interested and made you passionate about it? Yeah, I mean, the first, I remember the first time going and then I, I first, the first bottle I found, and it, just brought light to me. It’s kind of like treasure hunting without the treasure. But it’s, you never know what you’re going to find. And the history you’re be able to track off of the objects and artifacts you find is, is crazy. A lot of the stuff we find, it, is named, with addresses and then you get to go back and research that bottling house or that soda factory, what was on the property now, what was on the property back then. There’s just endless research you can do to learn how it got there, how that bottle got there, how it was made. And you also learn so much about the homestead that you found it on. You can learn what they, like, to drink, what they ate, what they were sick with, just everything.

There’s just so much you can learn from finding stuff in the ground. It almost gives you like a living embodiment of like, you’re actually learning history without like sitting in a classroom. Exactly. That’s basically exactly what it is. And we, we do spend a lot of time researching on the computer and stuff, but that’s kind of part of it. So I actually, I got a bottle and I found out it was coming on this, it was from, it has poydra street on it. Oh, wow. So I was like, well, let me look and see what was there now. And it’s a mineral water bottle from New Orleans, and that’s what I collect. And I looked at the address and it’s kind of where the Harris casino is now. Oh, wow. So it’s like, this was, this was made. Now there’s this here and just anything like that, you can, you can find. So what is that in that particular example, does that tell you that the bottle was just buried at the location, at the Harris, at the Harris or Caesar’s now casino? Was there like a bottle manufacturing plant there? Exactly. Okay. Wow. Okay. So 1850s, that’s what was there. It was this bottling manufacturing place. Before Caesar’s and the four seasons. Yeah. 150 years ago. There was a soda factory there and they made sodas, mineral waters, whatever. Wow. So, sir, us from the jump. So how do you, obviously there’s research involved with like identifying the site that y’all are going to go and excavate or dig at. So like, what are you looking for and how do you decide where you’re going to go and dig and try to find something? Well, for sites, it’s, it’s, you know, New Orleans is a very populated place, so it’s, it’s hard to find, to necessarily find sites. Like, are you looking more like, would you want to go to a more rural location because there’s going to be less stuff built up over it?

Or do you, ’cause I’m just curious, like, on my thinking like, well, maybe you do want to go in the outskirts of a city because you knew a lot of people lived there. Yeah. Yeah, you do. Obviously, so like you said, the less built up place, obviously the oldest part of New Orleans is the city. Right. Is the heart of it, which is now golf, business buildings and stuff. So, yeah, we, we go out a little bit and, and, anywhere that had a house, you know, they had to have trash and water wells and outhouses to, to trash in. So basically starts off, you got to get permission, right? You got to build a relationship with the property owner. You got to develop trust. Nobody’s just gonna go to somebody and say, hey, let me dig a hole in your yard, you know, it’s just. So how do y’all do that? Do you use code calling or you guys to the site? Yeah, I mean, we’ll, we’ll, we’ll knock on doors if and a lot of it is word of mouth. Once you get one, they’re like, oh, look how this was awesome. These guys took care of my stuff. They gave us a bunch of artifacts from my house. So a lot of it is word of mouth too. But yeah, we’ll knock on the door if we have to. I mean, it’s, but it is all about developing a relationship and trust. ’cause at the end of the day, we are digging a hole on your, your yard and most people’s yards are nice. Yeah. And I wouldn’t say I want somebody come digging in my yard, so it’s, it’s, it’s a lot of trust building and stuff like that with these people. But how do you identify Nick, how do you know whether there was a house on the property or not? Like, ’cause the house would have to be gone. There’s maps. Okay. There’s maps. And we also dig behind houses that are, that are there. Okay. Gotcha. Obviously, additions are built on over time for sure.

But some, the still have enough backyard space where the original stuff is still there. But there’s maps, old maps from the 80s and that lay out the city pretty, pretty close. And, and pretty much all towns. It’s not just a city that has these maps. And are you shooting to like identify, I think we’re chatting before the show, like maybe you shoot to identify properties that you think is going to have somewhere in the 1800s. Yeah. Yeah. What we, what we main focus on is pre 1900 stuff. Mainly 1840s to 60s, but all the way up to the turn of the century, 1900. Have you been able to determine like if you found anything in the late 1700s? I have, yes. Okay. So what was it? I’m curious. We dug some big, we dug a, a old outhouse. It was kind of where the interstate, where the bridge goes up to go, the other side of the river. It was in that area. New Orleans? Yes, in New Orleans. Yes, sir. And we dug some old, big whiskey bottles. That were pre 1800s. They were like 1780s. Wow. Yeah. And they were, they were all, they were all broke, unfortunately. We didn’t get any, that were in good condition. But how did you know that they were whiskey bottles? Just experience. You ever seen like the pirate movies and they got them big black glass. Yeah. Bottles. That’s what they were. I’m just thinking, I mean, it’s almost like a Jack Daniels label on like 1790. Yeah. No. How strong do you think that whiskey was? My Gosh. You know, we’ve, we’ve dug some, we’ve dug some liquor bottles from out the days that still had the cork in it. Oh, wow. With the stuff in it. Did you take the risk? No. No. Not me. I’m hoping that you didn’t. I’m sure somebody has, but it wasn’t me. I don’t think I’d be the one to test that out. Now, you mentioned the outhouses. That’s something we’re talking about. Obviously it’s been so long. If somebody’s listening to this is being like, they go to dig under the bathroom, like the shit has decomposed. Yeah. Yeah, it’s. You’re not digging through poop.

No, these are, these are 150-year-old outhouses. Everything’s decomposed. How deep down Nick did they dig the, the, the, the outhouse to be able to go into the ground? Like. It varies. I mean, we’ve dug them a shallow as like three feet, and we’ve dug them as deep as like 12 and 15 feet. Okay. So it did vary. A lot of it has to do with how much money you had. Interesting. Right? So like the very rich people back in the day. They would always dig them shallow, most of the time, but they would have somebody come clean them out because they could afford to have them cleaned out and reused. Interesting. So, I would have thought the opposite. I mean, immediately my brain was like, well, I guess the wealthier person back in the day would want it to be further down so they smell it less. But yeah, well, yeah, but they had them cleaned out. Gotcha. Probably, I wouldn’t say a weekly, but quite often, you know. Okay. And they would throw like, I mean, today, like when we’re unless it’s like a decomposed thing like a dude wipe, you’re not throwing crap down your toilet because you don’t want to jam up the plumbing. This guy knows I’m talking about. Back here with the dude wipes. But didn’t expect this show to go into this territory today. But, like today, we’re not going to throw stuff down our toilets, but like back then, I’m assuming they threw all kinds of stuff down. They threw trash down. Yeah. It basically was second day’s trash can for. Okay. I mean, they didn’t have trash trucks coming to pick up the trash every week.

So, the, the outhouse is like a treasure trove for y’all, I’m assuming. Yeah. Yeah. It’s, there’s everything. Anything you were throwing your trash today, they would throw in there. And then especially at the end when they were done, when it served its purpose, they would have to find something to fill it in with. It’s kind of like the, the modern phrase is one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Exactly. Exactly what it is. One man’s shit is another man’s treasure. Yeah. I’m guessing. That’s exactly what it is. What do y’all use to dig, Nick? And all seriousness. Like how do you get, how do you get in? Shovels. Shovels. That’s it. Yeah. I mean, we have certain tools and stuff, but mostly to shovel. It’s, it’s digging. Yeah. Wow. And so how big, how, how is it just your family? Do you have friends that come, like. I usually, I got one or two guys I dig with and then my dad. Okay. But there’s other, there’s other guys in New Orleans that do it besides the people I do it with. There’s actually, there’s actually a really cool, I don’t know if you got TikTok or not, but or anybody that has TikTok. There’s a, they might be on, I’ve held out. I refuse to give the Chinese my information. It might be on some other platforms, but there’s a, an archeologist group right now, doing some stuff in the French Quarter. Oh, wow. They’re doing like a courtyard construction, doing like a courtyard construction. And the archeologist got to go on it and they’re digging a bunch of outhouses on it. In the middle of construction. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. They’re tearing up like the courtyard and redoing it. Gotcha. So that exposed everything. And so it’s giving them an opportunity to go in and dig. Exactly. Amazing. And they post videos, it’s really, it’s really cool stuff. When I’ve got to imagine the French Quarter is going to have some of the oldest stuff, right? Like it’s going to be the oldest inhabited area of Louisiana. Right. And so every opportunity that you have to dig in a place that’s not covered over there is going to. Yeah. And like I said, it’s probably also the hardest because it’s very, it’s maintained very well. Yeah. It’s always been maintained. It’s never really been, you know, let go. So it’s, it’s hard to find places over there. And they got pools and I’m assuming there’s some like, ’cause I know the Voo Cari commission is very strict about what they allow and don’t allow in the French Quarter. Like the commission that. Yeah. Regulates it.

I’m assuming they have some regulation on what they allow and archeological digging as well. Yeah. I’m sure they do. Yeah. But, so tell us a little bit about, let’s get Nick into like, what kind of stuff you find? On your digs over the years. And then if it’s 21 years. Is it a lot of bottles? And I’ve looked at some of the bottles, my friend, Ryan, that we met through, sent me some pictures. They’re really cool. Like I’m originally from Tibeto and you had like some Tibeto bottles you found. So tell us a little bit about like, what percentage of the artifacts that you find are bottles and like, what kind of bottles are we talking about? Like explain some of that too. Yeah, so mostly what we focus on is bottles and pottery and stuff. But you find anything you can imagine. I mean, we’ve, we’ve found, we find a lot of old tobacco pipes. Oh, wow. Where like the stems broke off, so they would throw them away. We find a lot of marbles, old clay marbles and stuff. Old baby dolls, kids toys, child toys. It’s that other picture of the baby doll, kinda creepy. Yeah. We find like little, little tea sets, like child’s toys. And occasional coin, every now and then. Housewares, spoons, silver spoons, silver forks, every now and then. How old are the coins have you found? I’ve found some from the early 1800s. Are those valuable? Not digging them the way we do, ’cause they’re usually so the conditions just not salvageable, you know? I mean, they’re awesome. I love them and we keep them, but the coins conditions, pretty much everything and being in the in New Orleans for so long underground, it’s not. Yes, I guess like a fair. A coin collector’s going to come in and pay a lot of money for like a early 1800s penny or something. The condition is paring out.

And you’re digging it so far down. It’s It’s it’s just awesome to look at that point, you know? Yeah. What’s the oldest coin you’ve found? Was it a penny? Was it a quarter? We found some, I don’t know off the top of my head. I don’t remember. I have it at my house, so I have to look, but it was early 1800s. Oh, wow. That’s awesome. Yeah. I think pre 1830s. That’s worth it. That just the digging, just to have something as cool as that. Yeah. It’s it’s awesome. But yeah, mostly, mostly we focus on bottles, but, I could go on and on. We find toothbrushes. What’s the most unique stuff you’ve found? One thing I really like, we, doll toothbrushes. Most of them are out of bone. And they’ll have, most of the time they made them out of a bone. And then they’ll have. Most of the time they made them out of a bone. Yeah, they were made out of bone. Bone toothbrush. Like what kind of bone? Like a walrus kind of bone, like a chicken bone? I guess animal bone. They, they look like it, they don’t look like a bone. They look like a toothbrush. They would, they were fabricated. I would like to hope that they didn’t make it out of human. No. Back in the day. They were fabricated and, they’d have people’s name engraved on them. So you would even know who, who’s toothbrush that was. If you just dug from 170 years ago. That’s pretty cool. And then a lot of the pipes will have initials on them. So there’s there’s you can learn a lot. We found some dentures one time. Yeah. That was that was pretty crazy. Any idea on how old they were?

They were pre 1900s. And how do you discern that? Like, how do you figure out like, hey, I got these guys’ teeth. That’s how old they are. Well, you know, I’m really, we know how to date bottles by how the molds they were blown in and how they were blown. So, early 1800s, most bottles were free blown without a mold. Okay. And we could tell by the bottom of the bottle, how, how that’s the age and then a little bit later, they started blowing them in a mold. And then eventually they were machine made around the turn of the century. Very. That’s kind of how we date them. And that’s how you date the bottles? Yeah. And then you could date everything else pretty much by based on that. Yeah. Type of frame. Interesting. Correct. And so I know you work for Bottom Line Equipment and so this is kind of like a side passion project. Yeah. This is, this is something I do. I spend a lot of time on. Shout out to Bottom Line Equipment, great company. If you need all your equipment rental needs, you can call Nick or Ryan, okay? Yeah. It’s something I’ve spent a lot of time on. And I just dig and collecting as well. We, we, we have, we call them bottle shows, but it’s little bottle conventions, sale, trade, they have auctions. We have, it’s just, it’s just a passion. I love it. I love collecting and my house is full of them. Yeah. My wife is overjoyed. I bet she is. Well, if you’re like the regular person listening to this, it’s being like, man, this is like cool stuff. Like, where do they go to see some of the stuff that you, do you have a website with any of it up or do they just have to go to a convention? Yeah. I don’t, I don’t have a website, but there are, there are websites. That would be Louisiana focused. Like, yeah, yeah, there’s a, there’s a Louisiana focused Facebook page of pretty much all the guys in Louisiana that do it. That share, share their bottles and talk and it’s like a forum almost. Gotcha. And there’s shows, there’s a show in Mandeville that just passed last month. Okay. And then there’s another show in Metairie. And is, are the shows like, do those? So I’m assuming it’s a relatively small circle of people like you and what y’all do. Yeah. Maybe like dozens, not like hundreds.

Yeah, I mean, there’s, I think the last show in Mandeville was somewhere around like 65, 70 tables. Okay. And it’s all people who do what y’all do. Like, go and dig. Well, not all of them dig, but, they all collect. Gotcha. Some people don’t dig. It’s it’s not that appealing to some people. Yeah. So some people would be reselling them at the show. They just bought them from somebody else. Yeah. Some people just collect. They didn’t do the hard work digging. Yeah. They don’t, they don’t dig them, they collect, sell, trade. I like to dig them. And I’m, okay. So one thing we didn’t get into too, is like water wells are another good source besides outhouses, because the people would throw stuff down the water well, I’m guessing. Now some of these, shows, like, is there like a resource for people to find like when the show or a show would be coming near them? Like if you’re like me and you’re like, I want to go buy some old stuff or see one of these shows. Yeah. There’s a, it’s F.O.H.B.C. Federation of Historic Bottles. Okay. And, it’s a close, it’s a show, it’s a website for the whole, whole nation. It’s the national bottle club, I guess you call it. Wow. They have a full show list and they have a national show every year. This year’s in Reno. Oh, nice. Last year was in Houston. I attended that one. But yeah, there’s, there’s, it’s all over the internet. It’s all over, it’s all over YouTube now, the more that social media grows. People, there’s videos on YouTube, all the platforms of people doing it. And so that website will kind of like list out where all the shows in the country are going to be. People can see like locally if they want to. You mentioned there’s one coming up, is in Madisonville, you mentioned? It’s in Metairie. The Nationals in Mandeville. The one that just passed was in Mandeville.

That’s a good that’s where people would go to see like, hey, I want to go check this out. Like that’s where they would go to find out when the shows are coming or whatever. Yeah. Exactly. Okay. So, last couple of wrap-up questions I wanted to ask you, while I had you Nick, is, what are some of your, besides just like learning about the history, and generally speaking, have you learned any like lessons from digging all this shit up over the last 21 years? Like, maybe like I always like to think like we learned some lessons from history, whether it be, you know, mistakes people made or in war and all the things like that. But like, what lessons if any, maybe you’ve derived none from like digging a lot of stuff up over the last 21 years? Yeah, I mean, the main, the main thing I learned is you can’t be greedy doing it. There’s some people out there that are. It takes all the fun out of it, man. It’s, it’s all genuine, clean fun. And I guess when you get money too involved in it, people start, it takes all the fun out of it and it’s, most of us just do it ’cause we love to do it. None of us ever come out on top, you know, monetarily. Yeah. That’s why it’s the passion. Yeah. There’s never no coming out on top. No matter what you do. But there, there’s just be fair with people. You know, always, always treat them how you would want to be treated and that’s the main thing, man. It’s fun. Just have fun with it. Enjoy it. Respect other people’s property as if, as if it was your own. Because at the end of the day, they’re letting you, they’re doing you a favor, letting you have fun on their land. So, treat it with care. It’s came down to an art of getting these people’s land back. You know, at this point, we’ve been digging for so long that we could go dig a hole on your on your lot and you wouldn’t be able to tell. Wow. Unless you, I mean, if you got on your hands and knees and crawled around, you would, but from 10 feet away, you wouldn’t be able to tell. So, you take a lot of pride in and respect.

Yeah, of course. It’s, it’s that’s the main thing. I mean, if somebody would come on my land, I’d want it back how it was, so 100%. You know, they’re, they’re nice enough and courtesy enough to let us do it and enjoy it. And so we want to treat them with the same respect. 100%. So we always, we always, you know, we share whatever they want out of what we, out of what we get, you know, we always share with the landowners, property owners. And, some of them aren’t interested, but, but the ones who are, you’ll give them some of the artifacts. Yeah. Of course. And some of them love it, but some of them aren’t. Yeah. But some of them like to sit out there and watch and they have just as much fun as we do after a while. Yeah. 100%. I mean, I’d live in a condo, so you can’t really dig in my yard, but I’d love to just sit there and have a drink and watch or help you dig a bit. We’ve had that too. We’ve had that too. It’s the, that’s the, that’s the main thing. It’s got, got to have fun with it and everybody has fun with it. I’m assuming when you say, I assume there’s some people of just like any industry, right? I’m sure that, are trying to over monetize the collection of goods or maybe like overcharge people or. Yeah. I mean, things are worth what you pay for them, right? But, but when it comes to, to digging, people, people don’t, people don’t want to share, you know? Yeah. You know, they tore down a block in New Orleans, everybody would like see who can get there first. Yeah. That’s not what it’s about, you know? It’s, it’s when it comes to, it’s like any other thing, you do for fun. Say sports, when money gets involved, it’s not nearest fun. That’s right. That’s right. You know, and that’s not what this is about. It’s not what we do. That’s not what we want to be, how we want to be represented. That’s not what we want to be known for. So. If you’re like an average person listening to the show and you’re like, man, my family has a house from the 1800s.

I’d like to contact Nick and then consider digging at my property. How do they find you? I’m on Facebook. They want, want to, want to, look me up on Facebook. I’d love to. I’d love to dig in the yard, you know? This is plain and simple. That’s basically what it is. It’s, something we love to do and we share it with who, whoever, you know, share a passion. Yeah. And that’s another thing that I really enjoyed doing this, it’s, it’s spreading the word of what we do and getting more people in it. It is, I wouldn’t say it’s a dying hobby, but it’s the prominent people in it are of the older generation. And, I don’t see as many new people coming into it as, as it deserves, you know? Yeah. So we want, we want to get it out there and the more people that do it, the better it makes everything. The shows, the conventions. Yeah. I’m going to be honest. I was like, when we were, talking about interviewing you, I was shocked that I think I can, like an idiot for saying this, but it’s like, I grew up like in American Pickers and watching all those shows, right? And like, you knew there was a vibrant, vibrant hobby and community of people who were collecting antiques, reselling them, really looking for valuable and or special pieces and other people’s antiques, but didn’t realize how much of an industry there was, that people like doing what you and your family do.

Which is really digging and actively trying to take out some of these artifacts. Yeah. Aside from what you think about it and like old, like, you know, some of these different universities and companies may have archaeological groups that are looking for like animals and specific like mammoths or stuff like that from different ice age. But nothing, I wasn’t aware that there was a whole industry like there is with people. Yeah, there’s a whole group of people that do it just for passion and love. I mean, pretty much in every state, every older city, there’s people that do it. It’s real prominent in like Baltimore, Philadelphia. Because that was all big cities back then. So there’s a lot of stuff that they, they, they find up there too. But you’re coincidentally like located just having grown up here. Like New Orleans, back, I don’t think that people many people realize this. I didn’t realize this that long ago, but like New Orleans was one of the, like the second biggest city, to New York City. Yeah. For many years. Because of the port. Back. Yeah, that’s another, that’s another thing that’s awesome about it, is you find bottles that are embossed and stuff from like New York, from like the 1830s. And you get to think of the trip, it’s made to get to New Orleans. Yeah. You know, however they hauled stuff back then, boats. And then it was thrown in the ground for 200 years. Yeah. And still in perfect condition. That’s amazing. And then we even find stuff that was from England. So you got to think of a route it made over here. Throwing around, thrown in the ground. Amazing. And still. Yeah, ’cause basically New York was, I mean, New Orleans was so prominent back then, they could, they could get whatever they wanted. You know, it was probably the most prominent city in early 1800s.

So whatever they wanted from wherever they wanted, they could get it. Interesting. Well, any last tips or comments you want to give Nick about the, your passion project? It’s been an incredible discussion about what y’all do, but I just kind of wanted to leave the floor to you before we wrap the show to say anything else that we haven’t covered about, what it is that you do and digging up these artifacts. So our, for our audience. Yeah, it’s just it’s just one of we want to pretty much everybody that does this one to make sure that somebody recovers it before it’s gone forever. The world’s growing, every city’s growing, more things are getting built over. And once it gets built over, it’s never gonna be available again. So just everybody keep that in mind, you know, if you ever see something, take advantage of it because it might never come back to you. Great lesson. And if you have Facebook, reach out to Nick, Nicholas Perro on Facebook. Let him come dig in your property. He wants to dig in your yard. And Nick, thank you so much for being here today. It’s been an incredible discussion. I really opened my eyes to, what y’all are pulling out of the ground and the amazing artifacts y’all are finding. And I want to figure out how to go to one of these fairs and buy some of them because I love all this old school stuff. Like I just love it. It’s amazing. So keep it up. Thank you very much for having me. You got it. And thank you to all of our listeners. It’s been another incredible and interesting discussion on the Overruled podcast, brought to you by the Scott Vicknair Law firm. Until next time, we’ll see you then, and thank you so much for listening along. Scott Vicknair injury attorneys, we fight for the win. Information is for illustrative purposes only and does not constitute tax, investment, or legal advice. Always consult with a qualified investment, legal, or tax professional before taking any action.