New Hampshire Bans Digging... Starting Now?

[Mike O]

That I will Mike, That I will!

 

[woody]

The key to the article is "state owned land".

That doesn't mean you can't dig for bottles on private property with permission.

I'm not too concerned with it being enforced.

 

[deepwoods]

Good point, Woody. I'll never forget a program I saw a while back about archeologists exploring a bronze age shipwreck; one of the archeologists (rather pompously) said "to us a finding the remnants of a camp fire is just as important as finding gold coins"; then one of the divers found an amber necklace and everyone on the boat started dancing a mazurka.

 

[capsoda]

It got so bad in Pensacola,FL 10-15 years back that they actually had a meeting on the court house steps. It was low life slimey theiving bottle diggers against HOLYER THAN THOU arcys from the university. There were two well known local arcys with the bottle diggers but nothing really every came of it. Oh except the head of the arcy department at the university is now a resident of the state for stealing all this stuff she was saving from the diggers and selling it on ebay. [sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif] No kiddin it is the truth.

I'm am a proponent of flying under the radar and not being noticed though. Crap, I must be getting soft as I get older.[]

 

[madpaddla]

UNREAL !! Ok I can see how these bottles/dig sites are valuable to the environment, community, etc. But on the other side....if they are so valuable...then why aren't these scholars digging em up?? I am doing something different and will be giving many of the local bottles...that wouldnt sell on ebay for much anyway to the local historical societies. That might be an idea for some other diggers. BUT to stop diggers from digging b/c it is of historical importance....THAN DIG IT ! And if they aren't digging it than its can't be that important.
Ben
I will add on the state property though. So that would include...hmm most railroad tracks and vacinity, around old abandon buildings, etc???? I challenge that idea a bit. Sometimes the best thing coming out of these places is the bottles. And the local historical societies are proud to recieve the extras. So in those cases I don't see the harm. Correct me if I'm wrong....understood that decimating an area by a greedy bottle digger is not right and egregious.

 

[ConchDigger]

Good for the cop who let them dig. He or she obviously thought allowing people to dig who were having fun and not hurting anyone was more important than enforcing some obscure law for the sake of “following the rulesâ€. Crap on the other guys who “dig†being controlling. Here are some different Florida State Statute excerpts pertaining to historic resources and lands:

"Historic property" or "historic resource" means…These properties or resources may include, but are not limited to, monuments, memorials, Indian habitations, ceremonial sites, abandoned settlements, sunken or abandoned ships, engineering works, treasure trove, artifacts, or other objects with intrinsic historical or archaeological value[/b], or any part thereof, relating to the history, government, and culture of the state.â€[/b]
[/b]
“It is further declared to be the public policy of the state that all treasure trove, artifacts, and such objects having intrinsic or historical and archaeological value[/b] which have been abandoned on state-owned lands or state-owned sovereignty submerged lands shall belong to the state with the title thereto vested in the Division of Historical Resources of the Department of State for the purposes of administration and protection.â€

“Any person who by means of excavation[/b] either conducts archaeological field investigations on, or removes[/b] or attempts to remove, or defaces, destroys, or otherwise alters any archaeological site or specimen located upon, any land owned or controlled by the state or within the boundaries of a designated state archaeological landmark or landmark zone[/b], except in the course of activities pursued under the authority of a permit or under procedures relating to accredited institutions granted by the division, commits a felony of the third degree.â€


So, just what are we talking about there? Are old bottles historically significant just due to their age? If so, what is the age cut-off? What is historically significant? I’m sure if I called up the people in Tallahassee and said, “Hey, do you want the five old embossed laxative bottles I found in the Smith’s outhouse hole in Key West? I’m sure it’s historically significant that someone in the family around the turn of the century was constipated all the time†They’d hang up on me I’m sure. We all know and love that there is history in these old bottles, but collecting the trash of by-gone eras and preserving artifacts of historically significant events and places and famous people is different. If I found the engraved chamber pot of Andrew Jackson I would donate it! Plus, there are already many large bottle collections held by the state and U.S. government.

For now, I’ll keep my digging low-key, fill in my holes, and stick to private land. I do not want it to become the object of debate in a local public forum. That is how new laws are made and current laws become more restrictive or the target of enforcement!
Happy digging!

Brenda

 

[Mainepontil]

I'm glad to see everyone agreeing on this one. It does not matter if you trespass or get permission, fill your holes or leave a mess. They don't care about diggers or treasure hunters, they want it all to themselves or left in the ground? When we dig bottles we ARE PRESERVING them for future generations. When archaeologist dig bottles they are KEEPING THEM LOCKED up in a lab forever. SCREW THEM, they can't have it all.

There are a few more interesting posts about this same topic on bottledigger.net.

 

[woody]

That's why New Hampshires' state motto is "Dig Free or Die".[]

 

[subsoil]

Good comments made by all, I'm glad this is a top issue with the community here, it affects everyone regardless of where you're from and if you dig or not.

My issue with the sudden attention to this is that diggers are labeled as some sort of new "treasure hunter" that wrecks havoc on the earth for "no good reason". Suddenly these diggers who are noticed in a popular dump next to the tons of other craters left by diggers from the 70s and up must be stopped?

What about the many of us who have donated bottles to historical societies and lecture FREE information about bottles so people are aware of the significance of early glass? If the Arcs had it their way, the glass would stay buried forever for nobody to learn or care about, and they claim that's more valuable!? If anything, one would think more value lies in getting the glass out of its grave and on forums like this so it can be seen, discussed, and possibly obtained.

LOL Zane's right on! I've dug the now-banned site before and one of the popular camps had some fellas drinking Keystone from a 30 pak, they showed us bottles they had found cleaning up the camp and asked us if they were valuable - plain meds. I said "not really, but you all should get down there and dig!"

I never seem to have problems with local police. I've dug on another dump that was dug back in the 60s and 70s when it wasn't a big deal for anyone to be in the woods digging, it is registered as federal property, and the town police said no problems at all. But when the "officials" show up, be prepared to turn over your finds (or bury them fast) and get out for that day!

I am disgusted with the local media for simply quoting what the "officials" say, not even a single quote from a digger to get a different side of the story. What happened to investigative reporting? I hope no one was digging when the circus showed up to save the day, I heard the EPA, Army Corp, News teams, state and local police all showed up! If anyone was at the camps they must have sh@t bricks!

I feel the conclusion is we will be continually forced to pursue our hobby outside of the radar and keep the lowest possible profile about what we do to avoid this kind of negative attention, despite the fact that previous generations have dug the same sites without much trouble.

Original article from the Manchester Express:
http://shantec.resonancehosting.com/express_12_21_06.pdf

 

[bttlmark]

So it seems that some one was riding over the bridge & saw digging,,stuck their nose in and started trouble. The bottles there are landfill...The winos are probably littering the place with plenty of empty Qts.. He said a Thousand dollars each and then it began.
Greedy Govt Archeologists,,,always worried that somebody is getting something that they are not