Dug Tonight

[lexdigger]

I went by a construction site I've been waiting on tonight. They finally removed the last of the demo. The privies in this yard have already been dug, but I found some dump fill under the house they tore down. It's shallow and very compacted but it's old. There were Pikes Peak and Double Eagle flasks, local squat sodas, decorated stoneware and chamber pots all smashed to pieces. Somehow this little coffin flask managed to survive the bottles, bricks, and other stuff thrown in there with it. I sure do wish it was embossed! Chris

 

[JOETHECROW]

Chris,....Nice little flask...The interesting thing to me is that recently my good friend and I hiked into our sprawling local national forest and explored an old farmstead off an abandoned r.r. grade...after an hour of walking around we found the dump...vr old,..untouched...alot of large field stones thrown in on top of just the same kind of fragments you described... and the only survivor we found?...you guessed it...IDENTICAL aqua coffin flask (1/2 pint) My friend Tom actually found it upon flipping over a big old rock...it was about 4" down...lying on it's side in very compacted soil. We're going back soon to finish digging it if the weather holds.
P.S. You've dug some really nice bottles this season... Joe

 

[lexdigger]

As Dug! I was thinking about how nice it would be to dig a whole historic flask after seeing all the shards come out. Seeing this got the heart going for sure! I plan on going back and digging as much as I can before they destroy what's left. Hopefully there will be some good ones in there.
Joe, you all should dig that spot good. Take your time and be patient, there will be more whole bottles in there. Thanks and Good Luck! Chris

 

[JOETHECROW]

Chris...I was just telling my friend earlier tonight that I had a feeling we might find a whole significant flask in there when we go back....and I'm excited to go back too....thanks for the well wishes,....If I find anything cool I'll post it here.
Joe

 

[alabasterbottle]

Nice flask, would like to dig one myself.. I will be going to a 'national forest' next weekend where my buddy at work went hunting last weekend, and said he saw some old house footings. Tom

 

[frank]

Nice flask ! I found a dump like your i was check old tannery and went the back found huge piles of big stones .I started throw away from the pile and started find heels of women shoes from the 1870 and all the shards of bottles and broken ones too .Where from the 1860 and 1870 only !![]

 

[lexdigger]

Thanks guys.
Joe and Tom, I can't even think about going into the National Forest to dig around here. They are so hot on people digging for arrowheads. Since I also collect artifacts I wouldn't want to chance it.
Frank, I used to never mess with dump fill like this. I always figured it was so compacted that nothing could survive. I realized that I may have missed some good ones along the way and now I dig anything and everything that is spitting out old shards. You just never know.
Chris

 

[WMassPete]

oh...I can think of two or three spots like that....those spots are so depressing...you spend hours chucking rocks and you see all these great fragments...and maybe you end up with a bottle or two...it makes sense though.....the volume of a dump in 1860 or 1870 for the average small house probaly wasnt a lot - you would tend to reuse a lot of things - just tossing out the ocassional bottle or broken item.....how many bottles do you think you bought in a year in 1865....especially if you were a farm...you probaly made most of your own food and supplies..with the ocassional trip to the general store.....but yah....those little rock pile dumps are depressing - you do tend to find a lot of weird little knick-knacks in those......

 

[bottlenutboy]

i found one like that one time down here in the middle of nowhere it was the biggest dump i have ever found everything in it was busted all i found out of that massive dump was a single fletchers castoria bottle the shards would bring a tear to your eye all sorts of hutchinsons and meds in so many different colors i couldnt believe it amber cobalt green aqua and some sun colored so dark you would think they were irradiated i kept a few shards of the sun colored ones because they were so unusual the thing is that the suncolored ones are supposed to be semi rare but they were everywhere but all were broken the dump was very close to two stills so i guess while they were waiting on their moonshine the broke some bottles any way im rambling so ill come to a close here