A most pleasant and rewarding experience

[jwpevahouse]

A local dig during March proved to be in many ways the most unusual digging experience of a 40 year career mining for old glass. The site was right in town along Main Street, easily accessible. Construction of a retaining wall opened up an area long the old mill pond usually flooded. The dirt was easy to dig, clay mixed with humus. The dampness of the soil preserved everything from wood, to leather to cloth and generally the bottles came out clean. The age in some areas ranged from that ideal period of 1850s to 1870s. Glass was plentiful, bottles came out in many cases extra clean. There were numerous local colored sodas and of course a good assortment of patent medicine bottles, inks and a few pontil utilitarian bottles.
Best of all, the construction company employees were tolerant of our presence. They were kind enough to help with their earth moving equipment uncovering areas of the bank. The adjacent land owners were friendly and interested in what we were doing.
The 1850s green soda (Battelle and Taylor) pictured I found sticking out of a big pile of dirt. The photo of bottles is only one days finds. The pepper sauce bottle with contents could probably still be used. The shoes couldn't be worn but for 1870s shoes dug up they are amazingly well preserved. A lot of shoes came out of that dump. A map from 1872 shows a shoe shop about two blocks away.
Besides lots of bottles and other interesting stuff.a Civil War era cannon ball in good condition was found the first week.
It sounds like almost a fantasy or bottle hunters dream but take my word for it, it happened exactly that way and probably never again. I have the pictures to prove it. The site is under water now, too bad....

 

[embe]

Nice! That peppersauce bottle is something else. Never would have imagined it that way.

 

[Foreshore9]

Amazing !

 

[bottles_inc]

wow. if you have any more pics please share

 

[jwpevahouse]

wow. if you have any more pics please share

Here's a few more pictures, Dan and cannon ball, Trenton sodas, fancy pontil bottle, dan digging Morton, Trenton soda, Dan with a days finds, R. Elliott green soda Trenton. GA Kohl pontil green lager beer, PA, We found several Elliott and Morton bottles from Trenton dating to 1860s-70s, several Albert McNamee Hutchinson bottles Plainsboro, NJ, and an assortment of other bottles mostly dating before 1890. Every day revealed some good finds and a lot of bottles in general.

 

[PlaneDiggerCam]

A local dig during March proved to be in many ways the most unusual digging experience of a 40 year career mining for old glass. The site was right in town along Main Street, easily accessible. Construction of a retaining wall opened up an area long the old mill pond usually flooded. The dirt was easy to dig, clay mixed with humus. The dampness of the soil preserved everything from wood, to leather to cloth and generally the bottles came out clean. The age in some areas ranged from that ideal period of 1850s to 1870s. Glass was plentiful, bottles came out in many cases extra clean. There were numerous local colored sodas and of course a good assortment of patent medicine bottles, inks and a few pontil utilitarian bottles.
Best of all, the construction company employees were tolerant of our presence. They were kind enough to help with their earth moving equipment uncovering areas of the bank. The adjacent land owners were friendly and interested in what we were doing.
The 1850s green soda (Battelle and Taylor) pictured I found sticking out of a big pile of dirt. The photo of bottles is only one days finds. The pepper sauce bottle with contents could probably still be used. The shoes couldn't be worn but for 1870s shoes dug up they are amazingly well preserved. A lot of shoes came out of that dump. A map from 1872 shows a shoe shop about two blocks away.
Besides lots of bottles and other interesting stuff.a Civil War era cannon ball in good condition was found the first week.
It sounds like almost a fantasy or bottle hunters dream but take my word for it, it happened exactly that way and probably never again. I have the pictures to prove it. The site is under water now, too bad....

That peppersauce food bottle is amazing! Let me know if you ever decide to part with it, lol.

 

[jwpevahouse]

friend, Dan, much younger and healthier than myself did most of the digging. He's a novice digger/collector who keeps everything. I doubt he'd part with the bottle but I'll ask. The green 1850s B&W soda I found had contents, possibly some kind of berries but I dumped the contents. I agree preserved fragile items 150 years old are interesting. Among the many shoes were adult and childrens shoes both rubber and leather. I did save two complete pairs of men's shoes. If interested let me know?

 

[JOVE]

friend, Dan, much younger and healthier than myself did most of the digging. He's a novice digger/collector who keeps everything. I doubt he'd part with the bottle but I'll ask. The green 1850s B&W soda I found had contents, possibly some kind of berries but I dumped the contents. I agree preserved fragile items 150 years old are interesting. Among the many shoes were adult and childrens shoes both rubber and leather. I did save two complete pairs of men's shoes. If interested let me know?

What size shoes? Mine are wearing out.

 

[jwpevahouse]

Men's shoe, size 8.

 

[UnderMiner]

Simply amazing!