Looking to Dig a Coca Cola Site

[smoothjazz63]

Imagine this: A 40 x 40 brick building. A crawl space of 2 to 3 feet under a wooden floor. The year is 1894 and a soda bottling plant exists inside the building. Now, what is the one thing that a bottling plant of that era will always have? Answer = A wet floor, mainly from washing returnable bottles that are "never sold". What happens 20 years later in 1914? The floor is rotted and needs to be replaced. The bottling plant has gone out of business, and there are cases of hutchinsons that were deemed obsolete when crown tops became the norm. Also, there are crown tops that have sat unused since the plant closed. Add to that all the misc. other soda bottles from surrounding cities that were piled in the corner and never hauled away to that "low spot" in the ground nearby. The building's new owner has a room full of "trash" and no motivation to haul it away. Solution? Dump everything into the crawl space, fill and level with sand, then cover with 4" of cement. Fast forward to 1987. An enthusiastic young bottle collector (me) learns about the old soda plant (now abandoned) and wonders if there's anything to be found. He finds a small hole, about a foot across, in the concrete floor caused by water from a roof that has been leaking for 50 years. He probes the open hole with a broom handle, and out pops an 1852 blob top amber John Ryan Ginger Ale. Then another. Then another. 54 in all. Add to that about 135 hutchinsons from small towns all around the area. And crown tops of every description. Sealed like a tomb since 1914, there are no hobbleskirt Cokes at all. Just straight sides of all varieties and companies. The story is true. The town was in southeast Alabama. I submitted it to AB&GC magazine for publication TWICE for their "Writer's Contest". I guess it wasn't worthy of publication, but you're reading it here. My advice, follow every lead. And if you love endless articles about Saratoga sodas, historical flasks, pottery pigs, obscure New England glass factories, and fire grenades, sunscribe to AB&GC.

 

[hemihampton]

Interesting story, Do you got any of those bottle now. LEON.

 

[smoothjazz63]

Oh yes, kept one each of the best examples and sold/ traded the others/ duplicates. Four of the Alabama Hutchinsons were "unlisted" up until that point. It was great fun. Probably not to be repeated....

 

[hemihampton]

Post a Picture(s) if possible. THANKS, LEON.

 

[Plumbata]

Very interesting story David, thanks a bunch for sharing! Did you manage to completely dig out all the bottle-laden space under the bottling works floor, or was it more of a salvage operation before impending demolition/getting built over? Can you estimate how many crown sodas you discovered?

 

[lexdigger]

I live in a town with a Coca Cola plant and my experience is that MOST of the bottles got thrown into the privies and cisterns of that era. We dig Lots of 1900-1920's sites here that produce Many straight sided Cokes. I have dug cisterns that had literally Hundreds in there and it is not uncommon to dig six or more from a small TOC privy. We also find them from many other towns. I say try to find some lots to dig Near the plant and you will find what you are looking for.

 

[MedBottle1]

The Chero plant here is in a bad part of town. The building (brick) appears to still be standing and across the street from homes. I would assume it has a concrete floor and Google images shows the building is occupied by someone/something. Right beside the building on two sides are woods, now cleared out but with tall weeds and grasses. I have no idea who owns the building or adjacent lots. Too bad the sanborns don't show nearby dumps.

 

[madman]

I'm assuming Dawson is much like the small Georgia towns that we have dug in. You may of had some bottles that were buried right around the plant, but more likely they were hauled by wagon or truck to a bad neighborhood, behind a cemetery, or someone connected to the plant who had land and had a big hole they wanted to fill. Talk to old locals that may have heard stories in their childhood. You've got to get out and walk and find what looks like old road beds. Remember, it may be a stand of trees now and the glass is under leaves, briars, and other bad stuff. Finding country Coca Cola dumps are nothing like finding city dumps and while Sandborn Maps are great to locate privies and such, they won't help you much unless you are lucky enough to find something marked "dump". We keep searching- that's what makes it fun

amen brother!

 

[cowseatmaize]

Wow, a five fer. Mind if I remove a few Mike? []I don't know why that happens but seams it's getting worse.