A dump! FINALLY FOUND ONE!

[Wheelah23]

But alas, it comes with a catch, as well as an interesting story.

Today, I was cruising around, visiting various antique shops. After telling one owner about my specific interest in bottles, he told me he once dug bottles himself. Nextdoor to the shop was a large abandoned lot. After the owner of the shop learned of my interest in bottles, he told me that the lot nextdoor used to have a 200+ year old house. Needless to say, I was interested in looking around. He told me it was fine to go and look, and that I'd probably find nothing. Unfortunately, I didn't have my digging tools with me, because I didn't expect to find a place to dig. I decided to look around and decide whether it would be worth it to go back to the house, get the tools, then return to the lot. I walked around for a minute, taking in the landscape. Turns out, it's digger heaven. Scrap heaps of metal, one I think might even have been a truck. Old appliances. If it was garbage 80 years ago, it's there now. Scattered around were shards of glass, and a couple whole bottles, which I took back with me. MASSIVE dump site, or so it would seem. I decided, after 2 minutes of looking around, to go get the tools then return. I was so exited to go back and get them, I wasted no more time looking. I went back into the shop and did the polite thing, showing the guy the bottles I found and thanking him for the tip.

A couple torturous hours later, I returned ready to dig. However, the shop owner came out and told me that he changed his mind about me digging there. It was never his property in the first place. He started making up some BS about it being hunting season and how I shouldn't be there, and how he didn't want to be legally responsible if something happened, EVEN THOUGH it's not his property. I got the impression from his rambling that he realized there could be more bottles back where I found mine, and now he wants them for himself. Awfully selfish of the guy to do, don't you think?

I resolved to return in the morning, under the cover of trees, to dig this potential goldmine of glass. I shall return to my first dump tomorrow, and report on any new finds I make. I'll have to dig quietly, so the guy doesn't notice me... but the spot is pretty out of sight anyway. Wish me luck... I hope the fuzz doesn't come after me! [8D]

The few bottles I picked up off the surface in the 2 minutes I was there:

A Canada Dry crown top from 1960

Here's the base:

A cool 8-sided bottle. Any idea what was held in it? I'm guessing soda, but I don't really know.
It's made by the Capstan Glass Company (1919-1938). It's got a rather large potstone in the neck that I couldn't picture.

Here's a view from the top, you can kind of see the base embossing, as well as the octogonal shape.

Last is this lumpy bottle. Based on the base embossing, I can conclusively date it to 1941. Aside from the Owens-Illinois base information, it has a large "B" above the diamond logo and a large "R" below it. The top is unknown to me, it looks like it would've accepted a crown top as well as a screw top. Any ideas on what this was?

Well, that's it. Any ideas on the bottles? Any tips on how to get away with some more bottles?

 

[madman]

id go for it! is it posted?when is the shop closed?is there a back way in? looks to be a 40s dump, from the bottles you posted, could be some nice sodas and milks in there good luck.

 

[cyberdigger]

If I were you, Wheelie, I'd skip it.. nothing there worth the agg...ravation.. go to the flea market instead, at least you won't get arrested.. depending how you dress, of course..

 

[lexdigger]

Those last two bottles look like ketchup bottles to me. I wouldn't suggest going in and digging after he asked you not to! Whatever the reason, it's his property... right? If I caught someone digging on my land after I asked em not to, they'd better HOPE I called the cops instead of taking it into my own hands! LOL Not worth ruining your name as a digger around town... could cost you LOTS of future permissions!!!

 

[TJSJHART]

i don't do any diggin..but i'd try to find out who owns the land..like you said he never said he owned it ..and he might just want any thing found there...and you showed him there are things there,,,good luck.

 

[madman]

hmm, down here in the south digging is slim, i dig when and where i can but do not tresspass, if its posted dont do it, and or if the shop owner owns the land forgetabout it................

 

[Wheelah23]

Well. I survived, and I didn't get arrested to boot!

Once again, today has an interesting story. I got up early to go back to the shop's backyard. I looked around for a while, but didn't find much. I found exact copies of the first bottles I ever found, but this time I left them. I kept in the brush, just in case the shop owner doesn't have a car and lives in his shop, and so would be there and able to see me. Because of this, I was restricted from going into the open sight line where I found yesterday's bottles. Hence, I found almost nothing. The bottle I found was an ACL 7-UP, I'll post more after.

Feeling sad about finding practically nothing in what I anticipated to be a great place, I started driving home. On the way, I realized that there was a boarded-up, abandoned house on the road we were taking. I had time, so I stopped at the abandoned house. After exploring the backyard and finding no indications of anything good, I started taking a different path back to the car. Lo and behold, along this well-beaten path, I spied a pile of broken and intact bottles. It was surrounded by plastic water bottles and modern beer bottles, so I don't know how it was undisturbed. I started digging and out came the bottles. There was a variety of bottles there, mostly dating from 1920-1940, with a couple outliers on either end. Whatever source of bottles I found quickly ran dry. It was a 2' by 2' area, with bottles littered under no more than 6" of dirt. I don't know what it was, because most dumps I've ever heard of are much larger. I was done in probably 10 minutes. All in all, a successful dig. I'll post information about the bottles with their pictures.

If anyone wants better pictures of a bottle, just say so, and I'll go do it. You may notice my pictures aren't blurry anymore! I'm using the same camera, I guess it just depends on where I take the picture.


This is the only one I found near the shop. It's an ACL 7-UP which I think you can read pretty clearly. Based on the Glenshaw Glass Works manufacturing codes, I determined this is from 1949. What do you think of it? I don't like ACL sodas all that much, anybody want it?

All of the following bottles I found on the abandoned property, except for the milk, and the couple of bottles I posted yesterday.

Nujol. Some kind of mineral oil. Couldn't clean it out of the bottle, it's sticking to the inside, and the bottle's shape doesn't help. It smells very strong too.

Next are these two crown top beers. The green one was made before 1937. The brown could be one of 2 companies. Could be from one that closed in 1922, or it could be one that opened in the 1880's. The green seems to have an atypical shape, you can compare it to the regular brown one.

Here's what somebody suggested were ketchup bottles. You've seen the two on the left. Right one is from 1952.

Here's what seems to be a regular bottle, but it has a handle! Any ideas?

I think this is a hot sauce bottle from 1936. It's got that small opening top that only lets it drip the contents, which makes it hard to clean.

I like this one a lot. It's a NuGrape soda bottle. The faded ACL reads: "MIN. CONTENTS 6 FL. OZS./ NuGrape Soda/Bottled by/DR.PEPPER BOTTLING CO./SALISBURY, MARYLAND". It is also embossed with a design patent number of 86746. Any ideas on a date for this one?

A big, fancy "Federal Law Prohibits..." bottle. It's either from 1953 or 1956.

These are a bunch of screw top clear bottles. Lavoris was a mouthwash company. That bottle is from 1937. The two in the middle are from 1940 and 1937. The 1940 one has a 9 as the plant code, but it's BACKWARDS. Odd for a number to be engraved wrong, especially in a machine made bottle. What do you think the square one is? I guessed either a face cream or some kind of ink.

Here's a bottle made between 1933 and 1940. It says "FIDELIO BREWERY, INC." on the base. Old brewery from New York.

This is a milk bottle I bought from a shop. It says "KLIGERMAN DAIRIES", which is from Atlantic City.

This is a bottle with an odd shape. It is made by the Owens Bottle Company, NOT Owens-Illinois, so it was made before 1929. Most of the other bottles are easily datable, because they were made by Owens Illinois. Could this have perhaps been a cologne?

I like this bottle best of the weekend's finds. I believe it falls under the category of Deco Soda, but I'm no expert. It's embossed with "J. WEINER & CO. INC./BOTTLERS/WOODBRIDGE, N.J." Any New Jersey collectors out there heard of this company? Let's hope not... The base is embossed with 1925.

Last are the day's criers. I've found little pieces of bottles before, but these are so tantalizing... yet broken, of course.

Milk of Magnesia, made by the Chas. H. Philips Chemical Company.

I'll be crying over this one for weeks. It would've been a blob top bottle. I've never dug a BIM bottle intact before, or even close to this complete. It's embossed with "H.B. HARING/ EMERSON, N.J." The embossing is really strong. What is there to know about this company?

Well, that's all, folks. If you have anything to add about these bottles, please do. This excursion was fun, but I think I'm more cut out for privies. Hopefully my probe will get here in the mail soon, and hopefully I'll have some older bottles to show you guys!

 

[RICKJJ59W]

ORIGINAL: lexdigger

Those last two bottles look like ketchup bottles to me. I wouldn't suggest going in and digging after he asked you not to! Whatever the reason, it's his property... right? If I caught someone digging on my land after I asked em not to, they'd better HOPE I called the cops instead of taking it into my own hands! LOL Not worth ruining your name as a digger around town... could cost you LOTS of future permissions!!!

Word []

 

[Wheelah23]

I'm not going to be able to find another dump until May. That's why I've got to focus on privies. This was good practice for a larger dig like a privy, and at least I've got bottles I've dug myself now!

 

[cowseatmaize]

Regardless of whose property it is I hope your under 18. Better yet a cute 10-12 year old. Time served still su$%s