Got the shock of my life today digging this.

[hemihampton]

I went out for my 1/2 lunch break today & drove around looking for more tore down Houses in the big city of Detroit since I work in Detroit. If you followed my many other stories over the Years I'm always finding Bottles behind Demolished torn down Houses or at Construction sites. Today no different, only today got a surprise. The area is mostly Houses around he 1900-1920 time frame, maybe some 1890's at most/oldest. I see some dirt piles & pallets of cinder Blocks like they are getting ready to build something. In this Field, I see a big square shaped Trench with piles of dirt along edge of Trench. This trench is I assume going to be the Foundation of this Building, seen them do this many times before, they dig a trench like 2 feet wide & 2-3 feet deep & then fill this trench full of Concrete & steel rebar rods & cinder blocks, ect., ect. I walk along the dirt pile looking for Bottles or shards that they dug out of Trench. Aint finding much, cleaner then usual. I get to back corners & figure this is where the good stuff will be. First back corner not much, couple of shards of Broken Plates or cups. Move across back & not much BUT then I get to the other back corner & I see the bottom of a Bottle shard sticking up in the dirt. I figure probably the bottom of like a 1910 Crown top., which is typical & common in this area. I pull it out of dirt & look at it, it looks like it's got a kick up like you seen on the bottom of Wine or Champagne Bottles. I start wiping the dirt off bottom & I say NO WAY, That aint a kick up, That's a Iron Pontil. No big deal if you dig in the east where they are more common but not common at all in Detroit area. What was more surpring is It was totally unexpected in a newer 1900+ area. I'm like how did something this old from 1850's get here?????? I wanted to look in Trench to see where it came from. But trench was totally covered under tarps & bricks holding tarps down. Plus I had no shovel. I'm going to have to come back tomorrow & take a extra long Lunch break, see if I can shovel through that dirt pile & take a peek under tarp. Wish me luck. LEON.

 

[hemihampton]

Only thing I could think of was maybe a Tellers or Calnon & Cronk? So I compared the bottom to my Tellers & Calnon & Cronk & not a Tellers, Similar but not exact as my Calnon & Cronk. Not a Marsh & Butler as those have MB on bottom. I'm hoping I can find more of it to figure out what it is or was. Would be nice to dig some whole unbroken ones. LEON.

 

[Len]

Hemi,
If you had a shovel then you would have probably found the not-so-famous lost De Troit UFO crash site of 1702. Well, maybe tomorrow. Congrats on the pontil find. (You know, they're drying up on the East Coast too.) --L

 

[Len]

"Ya Gotta luv a union made beir!"

 

[UnderMiner]

Where there's one there's more! Hopefully the excavators haven't broken them all. Those pre-civil war bottles are quite hardy so there's a good chance some have survived down there!

 

[mike824]

I went out for my 1/2 lunch break today & drove around looking for more tore down Houses in the big city of Detroit since I work in Detroit.

I used to love exploring Detroit when I was a kid. I roamed everywhere looking for anything that looked old. I lived on Seminole in the Indian Village neighborhood and would explore anywhere my bike would take me. Unfortunately, none of my treasures from the late 1970's survived the years. Heck, from what I've seen on Google Earth, all the neighborhoods surrounding Indian Village have been razed flat. So much history lost.

 

[Digswithstick]

Iron pontil is on my bucket list !
Found a few (3), complete and several broken, glass pontil bottles. The iron pontil eludes me.

 

[hemihampton]

I used to love exploring Detroit when I was a kid. I roamed everywhere looking for anything that looked old. I lived on Seminole in the Indian Village neighborhood and would explore anywhere my bike would take me. Unfortunately, none of my treasures from the late 1970's survived the years. Heck, from what I've seen on Google Earth, all the neighborhoods surrounding Indian Village have been razed flat. So much history lost.

Hi Mike, I'm very familiar with Indian Village, I drive threw that Neighborhood every other day or 2-4 times a week. there's a dump not far from there off Jefferson. Yes, Lots of torn down Houses in the area & found some Bottles in the area. LEON.

P.S. Welcome to the site.

 

[hemihampton]

WELL, Got some bad news. I drive by this small construction site on my lunch break & what do I see, about 4 or 5 Pick Up Trucks & another 5 or 6 Guys out there. And what do I see them doing? Filling the Trench with Concrete & Cynder Blocks. Looks like my Trench full of Pontil Bottles are long lost & buried under Concrete. I came back after work in the dark with my 3 Prong rake & raked away at the dirt pile hoping to find some more pieces from my broken bottom but did not see anything. not alot of shards a bad sign. I tried probing next to trench but they poured left over concrete all around the top of grassy area next to trench. And where they didn't, I only got about 3 inches & seemed to hit something hard like concrete. Could not get through anywhere with probe. I may give it another visit Sunday in daylight & hope no Construction workers around then. LEON.

 

[hemihampton]

Went back today just before it got totally dark but getting dark. Heres a pic of the back corner where 1850s Iron Pontil shard/bottom was found.