"I am an archaeologist, this is what I love to do," said Rebecca Schwendler, who chose her home partly because she suspected the outhouse would have unique treasures.
"You can find a lot of interesting things," she said. "I think most people have no idea that you can find artifacts in an outhouse."
In total, Schwendler found more than 100 items: pig bones, Model-T parts, even alcohol bottles from the Prohibition Era.
"Here there's a syringe," Schwendler said, as she pointed to a photograph of her find. "That's probably from some kind of self medication, using opiates of some kind. Heroin, maybe."
In the Victorian Era, Schwendler says people self-medicated with drugs that are now illegal.
"It was just part of everyday life," she said. "And I think that's fascinating."
University of Denver students are now conducting further research on what Schwendler found.
She says it's a very bad idea for just anybody to go out and start digging around for artifacts like these.
If you think you have a historical site - whether outhouse or something else - Schwendler advises that you contact a local university for help on getting a site dug up in the correct way.
(KUSA-TV © 2012 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)