Narrowing down the hunt......

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cannibalfromhannibal

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Just a "short" update on last post. Probed out another barrel privy last dog day of August. Had to wait for the shade to cover my spot so I got a late start at 3:00. Didn't really matter as it was 5 foot shallow and easy digging. I opened it up and hit gravel on the top 1/2 foot and just underneath that began an ashy dark soil with a few shards. One piece looked really old, like early 60's and likely a fruit jar, I thought. Got a couple feet deep and started pulling out the usual white china and a few brown pottery pieces. Nothing really identifiable as to age, until another foot deeper and I pulled out my first piece of bottle glass. It was a nice lime green color and looked like a Mcleans Strengthening Cordial top. Sure enough, a bit later out comes the embossed remnants of the green panel. Never found the base or anything else, but was a nice early applied top one. Then I really started hitting the fruit jar shards. First came a couple un-embossed wax sealers with plum sized holes in them. Boo-hoo I thought. One crushed Mason's 1858, then some shards with no embossing but old as the earlier shard I first dug. Then up pops a top to a jar with strange lugs instead of threads. I know from experience these odd type closures can and likely bring big jar bucks and so I really got excited when I found one with some embossing. Looked like Aug, 14 186?, missing the last number. Then I pulled out the shard with the rest of the numbers.....1860! Cool! The early pit, I thought to myself. Next embossed piece was J. C. Baker's Patent! This HAD to be a rare one. Turns out to be RB#188. By the size it had to be a half gallon. Then out came another busted one, then another, each crushed worse than the previous one, all half gallons. On the bottom of the pit was some yellow ware from 2 different small dish type dinner ware. Thought I could glue one together but turned out I had pieces from each but not all of one. Came away with a cruddy olive or mustard slick looking from the early 70's and that was it. Still better to dig a 5 foot hole full of broken stuff than a 12 foot hole with nothing! I'm thinking with as much glass as was thrown in this shallow hole with a fairly narrow age range, it was possibly a temporary privy while the house was being built or more likely could have been a servants privy. There were no bottle shards with the exception of the McLeans and a plain un-embossed medicine. No sodas, whiskeys, inks, etc. Mostly kitchen stuff and fruit jars. Still missing the hole with the late 70's and all the 80's stuff, so I probed the space remaining in line with the other 3 holes and think I hit one more right in-between. Been itching to get back to it but heat index here for all the month of September has been 100 degrees plus, so I have to wait until later this week when we get a good cool-down. There is also an interesting gopher hole about 4 feet away on the property line going under the garage where I think I probed a stone liner to the house next door. Lucky me, it belongs to the folks who own the house behind where I've been digging! Who sez gophers are dum?
 

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cannibalfromhannibal

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Some pics of the rare Baker's Patent......
 

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RED Matthews

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Looks like fun. I
used to do it = just to old now. I have been putting together description pages for my daughter= and numbering each glass item, so she will know what she is selling, With that project, she will be busy. RED Matthews
 

botlguy

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That BAKER'S is a terrific jar, we had a nice jar collection at one time, actually two different times, and never owned one. I hope you can dig a complete one someday. Jim
 

Bass Assassin

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Well shoot. I was hoping to read where you had found Samuel Clemens' hidden whiskey stash or initialed personalized pipe. Oh well, can't win them all Jack. I kind of favor those McCleans Cordials. In one pit I found a small one intact but the larger variant was broken. If you hadn't said you found the rest of the bottle I would have told you that top was from a clasped hands flask! (Just to be mean of course). And you are right, it has been hot lately. Heard there's a cool front moving through our part of the country.
 

Lordbud

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I'm not sure what is most impressive -- the frequency of your digs, the narratives, the fact you started digging in California, or that apparently no one else is digging in your city. Always look forward to your posts.
 

cannibalfromhannibal

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Thanks Jason. After a record setting 2012 season when I dug 25 productive holes in 49 days, I've tried to average one a week since then. This turned out to be highly unrealistic due to seasonal issues as well as simply becoming more difficult to find new undug spots. So now I shoot for one every 2 weeks average. And yeah, we have a small number of out-of-town diggers on rare occasion, but for the most part the local diggers have gotten too old or croaked, leaving me as the sole resident digger. There are a couple local amateur diggers, but they are no real competition....Yet!
 

cannibalfromhannibal

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Bass Assassin said:
Well shoot. I was hoping to read where you had found Samuel Clemens' hidden whiskey stash or initialed personalized pipe. Oh well, can't win them all Jack. I kind of favor those McCleans Cordials. In one pit I found a small one intact but the larger variant was broken. If you hadn't said you found the rest of the bottle I would have told you that top was from a clasped hands flask! (Just to be mean of course). And you are right, it has been hot lately. Heard there's a cool front moving through our part of the country.
Hey Bass, I plan to open up one of two last hopeful spots in this stingy yard I've been hunting the past 2 months while the weather is cool now. I'm hoping to find SOMETHING worth a decent post! There is a more common quart size Bakers Patent fruit jar on fleabay but it is stuck at a cheap $86 with 4 days left. Curious to see what it goes for so I can really cry over those smashed gallon jars, or not, haha! Wish me luck! Goin' in! Jack
 

Bass Assassin

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Yep, I know what you mean. The same pit I dug the McClean's bottles from I also found some bases to some super sized jars. I'm guessing they were gallon? Anywho, they were of a deep Aqua color, gorgeous. Would give my left ..ahem.. To dig a whole one. I'm hoping you post some terrific finds in the next few days. I can't do squat till it cools off and I can get back into woods and open up those 2 monster holes again
 

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