Bo, have you located that treasure trove of archeological information (the town dump) yet?
The local community college by my mom's has sponsored several summer dig programs at old oil boom towns, usually at the site of an old dump or a hotel privy.
Being a for credit practicum class, they sometimes don't get as much work done as hoped, but OTOH everything is done "by the book", often including videotaping any finds, and (good or bad depending on your views) the artifacts are usually donated to the local hysterical (
) society for preservation.