People nonchalantly throw away their past, and because of that, gems of history are often found in the trash.

Mark Major of Pottsville was dumpster diving at a city maintenance garage on East Railroad Street on June 12 when he spotted what is, essentially, atreasure trove for anyhistorian."Lots of old maps," said Major, a board member of the Schuylkill CountyHistorical Society.He was taking items to the recycling bins and figured, like always, he'd check the dumpsters."People throw all kinds of crazy stuff away," he said.Among his finds were mining maps, a Pottsville High School graduation announcement from June 27, 1927, and old books.One of the maps depicts the street layout of Tamaqua and Tuscarora and identifies the mine workings between both communities.It appears to be an early print of the December 1888 Geological Survey of Pennsylvania under the direction of J.P. Lesley, state geologist, and Frank A. Hill, anthracite district geologist.Major thinks the maps might have been dumped by an engineer who no longer needed or wanted them.On Thursday, Major drove to Tamaqua and donated the local map to the Tamaqua Historical Society, presenting it to secretary Linda Yulanavage.Yulanavage said the map would be added to the extensive map archives owned by the society.The map will be stored in the museum's climate-controlled archives room. The society would like to make its collection of maps available for in-house research after the renovated museum reopens.Major said he routinely checks dumpsters and over the years has made other significant finds.Two years ago, he discovered nine vintage stereoscopic views of sites in the county, as well as two from Berks and one from Philadelphia.Stereoscopic views were photos mounted on cardboard and meant to be seen through a stereoscope, which was a contraption for viewing a pair of separate images, one for the left eye and one for the right, creating a single three-dimensional image of a scene.The black and white photographs were popular in the 1870s and '80s, but date back to the earliest days of photography.Among Major's other finds were copies of Harper's Weekly, a political magazine dating to 1869, and classic books such as "Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger and George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four."He has also discovered magazines with articles about infamous O.J. Simpson and popular Joe Namath, both big names in the NFL.Major is a published author, Civil War historian and recognized expert on the legendary Molly Maguires.He supports preservation initiatives at all of the historical societies in Schuylkill County.