Plumbata
Well-Known Member
I haven't been able to get out and do that much digging lately. A few weeks ago I went exploring in a small town north of Peoria, IL in search of the town dump, because something about the town made me think there might be some good stuff to be discovered. I found a dump and started digging, but the oldest it got was around 1918ish and all the good stuff (A hutch, an amber Globe mason, Bonnie Bros Whiskeys, etc) was broken. Did find a few keepers but they weren't really worth the gas it took to get there. Might be worth digging in again, we will see.
The best find as of late was a rather nice-sized dump in Bloomington, IL which has an exposed bank of 100-150 feet. I had some business to attend to Thursday morning, but afterward I had the whole afternoon free to scour the town in search of dumps. I used my bicycle to get around and got plenty of leg exercise. The first dump I found was a small household dump area, and though there were shards all over the place I doubt there is much material in there and I wouldn't want to anger the property owners by digging at the rear of their residence. I found a few other areas that seemed to have roughly the same potential on the surface, though they may be worth probing as one might be an old neighborhood dump, and they are rather well concealed from view.
In one of these crappy areas I found an enameled automobile emblem of a make that I didn't recognize. After a quick scrub the piece revealed that it was a "Product Of General Motors" and an internet search showed that the "Oakland" was made between 1909 and 1931. Pretty cool piece I thought.
The last spot I found was by far the best, and although I had absolutely no digging tools with me I still managed to bring home some bottles! The slope was littered with BIM shards, broken jugs and clinkers, the groundhog holes were dug straight into some juicy ash, and the age seemed to be a solid TOC-1920. Thankfully it isn't merely a deceiving surface-dump. It actually has some good depth and it covers a decently large area so there are sure to be some great bottles and stoneware in there. I really wish that I had a shovel with me because the area was dripping with potential. Probably some great BIM pharms and sodas in there. Hopefully some hutches because I haven't dug one in a while.
I picked up a few nifty things that had been kicked out of the groundhog holes. It isn't much, but I have found great dump spots as a result of groundhog diggings, and the bottles they kicked out in the past weren't as impressive/informative as these.
This fell out of my bag as I was bringing it inside. It was a BIM "D.D.D." with a great straw line across the front. It was kicked out of the same hole as the BIM bromo seltzer. Oh well, it was a tad unimpressive for triple D's anyway [
].
The other bottles, all kicked out of holes, and a shard of a BIM crown Bloomington Soda. Not a hard one to find but a sign of what lies in wait! There were shards of 1858s and other things too. That blown bromo is only the 4th or 5th one i've found. I've dug 200+ of the ABM corkers, many of them in my 1910s Peoria dump, so to see this come out makes me think it may have a few years of age on what I had been used to digging. Sounds good to me! [] It may all be speculation, but if some parts of the dump are pre-1906 then I may be able to find some good meds, which I don't have many of. Only 1 way to find out I guess!
It has some dings, and when I grabbed it up and saw the SP I was hoping it was a local pharmacy, but it is a "Lithos H.K. Mulford Co. Philadelphia"
5 pounds of copper scrounged up, worth 12.50. The thing on the bottom is a thick old copper frying pan. When searching for dumps or while digging I like to collect the copper and brass/bronze I see, it really does add up enough to pay for dinner, some smokes, or extra gas.
So as you can tell there wasn't much that I could dig up on Thursday equipped only with my bare hands, but I discovered a nice, undug TOC dump of a quality and size I haven't found in over a year, so I am very very happy, way happier than a single find would make me! Bloomington isn't too far from Peoria so there will probably be some goodies from my town buried in there, which is a definite plus. I've spoken to a few people over time who had dug dumps in Bloomington in the past and say that most has been dug out or build over by now, but I guess they didn't find this spot! Can't wait to get back in there in a few weeks to tear the place up!
The best find as of late was a rather nice-sized dump in Bloomington, IL which has an exposed bank of 100-150 feet. I had some business to attend to Thursday morning, but afterward I had the whole afternoon free to scour the town in search of dumps. I used my bicycle to get around and got plenty of leg exercise. The first dump I found was a small household dump area, and though there were shards all over the place I doubt there is much material in there and I wouldn't want to anger the property owners by digging at the rear of their residence. I found a few other areas that seemed to have roughly the same potential on the surface, though they may be worth probing as one might be an old neighborhood dump, and they are rather well concealed from view.
In one of these crappy areas I found an enameled automobile emblem of a make that I didn't recognize. After a quick scrub the piece revealed that it was a "Product Of General Motors" and an internet search showed that the "Oakland" was made between 1909 and 1931. Pretty cool piece I thought.
The last spot I found was by far the best, and although I had absolutely no digging tools with me I still managed to bring home some bottles! The slope was littered with BIM shards, broken jugs and clinkers, the groundhog holes were dug straight into some juicy ash, and the age seemed to be a solid TOC-1920. Thankfully it isn't merely a deceiving surface-dump. It actually has some good depth and it covers a decently large area so there are sure to be some great bottles and stoneware in there. I really wish that I had a shovel with me because the area was dripping with potential. Probably some great BIM pharms and sodas in there. Hopefully some hutches because I haven't dug one in a while.
I picked up a few nifty things that had been kicked out of the groundhog holes. It isn't much, but I have found great dump spots as a result of groundhog diggings, and the bottles they kicked out in the past weren't as impressive/informative as these.
This fell out of my bag as I was bringing it inside. It was a BIM "D.D.D." with a great straw line across the front. It was kicked out of the same hole as the BIM bromo seltzer. Oh well, it was a tad unimpressive for triple D's anyway [
].
The other bottles, all kicked out of holes, and a shard of a BIM crown Bloomington Soda. Not a hard one to find but a sign of what lies in wait! There were shards of 1858s and other things too. That blown bromo is only the 4th or 5th one i've found. I've dug 200+ of the ABM corkers, many of them in my 1910s Peoria dump, so to see this come out makes me think it may have a few years of age on what I had been used to digging. Sounds good to me! [
] It may all be speculation, but if some parts of the dump are pre-1906 then I may be able to find some good meds, which I don't have many of. Only 1 way to find out I guess!
It has some dings, and when I grabbed it up and saw the SP I was hoping it was a local pharmacy, but it is a "Lithos H.K. Mulford Co. Philadelphia"
5 pounds of copper scrounged up, worth 12.50. The thing on the bottom is a thick old copper frying pan. When searching for dumps or while digging I like to collect the copper and brass/bronze I see, it really does add up enough to pay for dinner, some smokes, or extra gas.
So as you can tell there wasn't much that I could dig up on Thursday equipped only with my bare hands, but I discovered a nice, undug TOC dump of a quality and size I haven't found in over a year, so I am very very happy, way happier than a single find would make me! Bloomington isn't too far from Peoria so there will probably be some goodies from my town buried in there, which is a definite plus. I've spoken to a few people over time who had dug dumps in Bloomington in the past and say that most has been dug out or build over by now, but I guess they didn't find this spot! Can't wait to get back in there in a few weeks to tear the place up!
