Epic Weekend Digging Bottles

[abenson]

I normally don't dig for bottles but when my Brother-In-Law told me about all the glass they were seeing at this site, I decided to go take a look. The site dates from and the bottle we were digging are from 1850's to about 1900. Nothing real valuable came out but there were some real heartbreakers (broken bottles) like log cabin bitters, California bitters and a few others. We also recovered marbles, coins and tokens, but nothing real exciting to mention specifically.

We used a trenching method to recover the bottles. There was about 8-10 inches of topsoil then a layer of trash that extended down to about 3 feet deep. We would dig about a 3 foot by 3 foot hole straight down and then start trenching and backfilling as we went. Between the 4 people that were there I would guess we recovered about 150 bottles. I will say I'm feeling it this morning after digging about 9 hours over the weekend. Hope to get back there again next weekend and I'll post my finds of that trip next week.

Pictured below are the bottles I recovered.

 

[Tiftaaft]

Whoa!  That is some great glass there Abenson!!  They look to be in perfect condition for the age.  

The Great Dr. Kilmer's Swamp Root is my fav!!  

Of course, my last name is Root, so that may be why 😉. 

 

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Nice going Andrew !

[Chase Goldman]

Andy,

 

Looks like fun.  I only had heartbreak broken glass for me this weekend at Brandy Rock but it was still fun.  Congrats.

[F350Platinum]

Nice stuff! Takes me back. Those are some great bottles, I can feel the elation with every find. Hard work!

[kac]

I want some Swamp Root! Might fix my knees, back, shoulder and even give my MK an extra 4" in depth!

Awesome finds. Love the old snake oil bottles. Generations from now all they will have is plastic bottles of miracle meds like prevogen to help with memory that all the users are vague on exactly when they first started taking it 🙂

[Valens Legacy]

Nice looking bottles, was it an old junk yard or trash site? Kind of unusual to find so many items in one spot like that isn't it?

Good Hunting and good luck on your next outing.

[Guest calabash digger]

OH YEAH!!!🤩

[abenson]

9 hours ago, Valens Legacy said:

Nice looking bottles, was it an old junk yard or trash site? Kind of unusual to find so many items in one spot like that isn't it?

Good Hunting and good luck on your next outing.

We think it was a dumping spot on the outskirts of town. Industrial building are now being built in the area.

[okara gold]

Nice find on all those bottles!  The Kilmer's is pretty cool. I always like how they put a kidney on the front panel. That was the only reason I bought my first metal detector back in the '70's was to find old bottle dumps. Dig it all till they're gone. Might find a nice poison bottle in the mix.