Question about dump sites

I have been digging Outhouses in a particular town for quite some time now and have found a number of Drugstore bottles in the outhouses. I recently talked to a guy that had a bunch of bottles he found in what to me sounded like the old dump site for that town. He wants to show me where it is so I can see what I can find.

I'm definitely going to look into this but my question is do you guys find many drugstore bottles in the old dump sites? That's mainly what I'm after.

flint_illustrator said:

I have been digging Outhouses in a particular town for quite some time now and have found a number of Drugstore bottles in the outhouses. I recently talked to a guy that had a bunch of bottles he found in what to me sounded like the old dump site for that town. He wants to show me where it is so I can see what I can find.

I'm definitely going to look into this but my question is do you guys find many drugstore bottles in the old dump sites? That's mainly what I'm after.

Click to expand...

if its a town dump site , could be druggist bottles there , if he's already found some there it make sense

personally I never really have any luck finding these , usually just plain clear ones with no embossing or broken parts of one

Yeah embossed drug store bottles are pretty typical finds in town dumps of the right era, as long as the part of the dump you're digging in has household trash in it.

I have found more pharmacy bottles in dumps than privies; privies seem to turn up mostly alcohol and soda and dumps more medicine, food, and pharmacy bottles.

I have found lots of drugstore bottles in the old dumps around here.

I've found probably about the same % in both Dumps & Privy's.

I usually find bottles local to the area the dumps in. Dumps contain a percentage of medication bottles. Also a % of liquor/beer bottles, % of sodas, % of food jars, % of misc. This varies dump to dump. Your friend may know off hand what to expect.
ROBBYBOBBY64.

a dump has many types of bottles,many other thigns to.so dig them all .have dug for the past 50 years.

YES I DIG DUMPS TO YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU WILL DIG UP

flint_illustrator said:

I have been digging Outhouses in a particular town for quite some time now and have found a number of Drugstore bottles in the outhouses. I recently talked to a guy that had a bunch of bottles he found in what to me sounded like the old dump site for that town. He wants to show me where it is so I can see what I can find.

I'm definitely going to look into this but my question is do you guys find many drugstore bottles in the old dump sites? That's mainly what I'm after.

Click to expand...

Honestly, I don't mean my reply to be offensive. That said, I have to remark that I find the question somewhat silly. Why would anyone not expect to find a representative selection of bottles, and other discards, reflecting the lifestyles of a town's residents in a vintage community dump?

Things disposed of in town dumps of an era to interest most bottle collectors, that is pre-1910 bottles produced by blown-in-mold, hand production methods in most cases, should naturally reflect virtually the full range of products consumed by the town's residents who had access to the disposal site. Whereas industrial dump sites, those of resort hotels, logging or mining camps, backlots of saloons, hospitals and the like might have object accumulations more skewed in a particular direction, a "town dump" ought to provide an eclectic and representative assortment. My personal experience with large town dumps, though limited (I tended to seek out logging, mining and milling sites in relatively remote locations), confirms my assertions.

Remember, community dumps of that ear did not typically assess fees in the 19th and early 20th centuries--my local dump, which actually transfers refuse half way across the state for burial, currently charges about $180 per ton of dumping. Thus, as long as residents had convenient access, they were likely to dispose all of their refuse at such facilities. By contrast, many rural resident who were often living an agrarian lifestyle on acreage, were more likely to dispose of their refuse on their own land or adjacent "waste lands" such as untillable ravines, stump fields, tidal mud flats, marshes and the like.

Certainly, nhpharm's comment of " I have found more pharmacy bottles in dumps than privies; privies seem to turn up mostly alcohol and soda and dumps more medicine, food, and pharmacy bottles." rings true. An imbiber seeking to hide his drinking from the wife might well retire to the outhouse to do so*. On the other hand, if one was addicted to a local pharmacist's concoction, particularly those "patent" medicines that contained high percentages of alcohol, codeine, heroin, laudanum (opium) and similar addictive substances, then a specific privy pit might well contain a greater concentration of pharmaceutical bottles than the typical sample of a town's dump might indicate. Alcohol consumption, which was considered a prevailing scourge (hence the Prohibition) of the late 19th century in America, would more likely be hidden than presumptively legitimate "medicine taking."

* Too many decades have elapsed for me to remember the details, but I recall reading a report of such a find in a privy dig. In fact, I think I remember that the structure itself was still standing, and the large accumulation of one particular brand of whiskey or bitters bottles included quite a few that were secreted within the building itself in addition to those recovered from the dig.