Leadville Colorado Mining Bottles

[nhpharm]

I've always loved these...they completely don't fit in any of the collections I have but I just think they are neat and have never been able to part with them. From left to right: Arkansas Valley/Smelting Co./Leadville.Incorporated 1882/The/Arkansas Valley Smelting Co./Leadville ColIncorporated 1879/The/A.R. Meyer And Co/Ore Milling And Sampling Co./Leadville Col Just thought I would share. I think some of these are pretty hard to find

 

[CanadianBottles]

Those are great! Do you know what they used to contain?

 

[nhpharm]

I really am not sure. I was once told they were used for granular ore concentrates but it seems like a bit of a strange way to hold these.

 

[cowseatmaize]

I figure it was some highly toxic pollutant that they used so they could test the soil and determine if it was worth the expense of destroying the entire landscape over. Maybe I'm just a skeptic.

 

[nhpharm]

Could be. Neat mining history nonetheless.

 

[MichaelFla]

I would have guessed aqua regia, a mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid. Edit: Ignore this... I was thinking assaying for some reason, and not smelting. [8|]

 

[botlguy]

I've been around and interested in Western mining area bottles a long time and have never seen these. That doesn't mean they are rare but they're sure not common either. Nice ! ! Jim

 

[nhpharm]

Thanks! I doubt they held anything too toxic...they are about the size and dimensions of the early Vaseline bottles with a big wide mouth. They would probably have held some sort of paste or as mentioned earlier something granular. I understand a good number of these were dug at various times in the famous Leadville dump...I've seen them for sale from time to time but I think it would take some time to get all three. These examples don't look like they were ever in the ground.

 

[andy volkerts]

Cool bottles! but I thought they were made for shipping samples in, I have found a few here in California mining sites, not embossed but the same size and shape with wide mouths, good finds!