Newbie gearing up for a dig this summer on a house site from the 1870's

[johnmac]

Hi All,Just joined this forum after finding it when searching for bottle information. I own a farm that includes an almond orchard. On one part of the orchard there was a house that would have been on the outskirts of an old town that is gone/ moved called "Silveyville". (There is actually a post in this site about someone's dig on our neighbord property down the road that had been the heart of Silveyville. I found it when I first visited this site.). I have a map showing the house as being there as late as 1890 but by a 1910 map it is gone. When ever I have had to dig in the area the house would have been I find remants of old nails or other rusted stuff or old pieces of pottert and glass. So I have always had a good idea where the house was. There is squirrel burrow network(these are ground squirrels) really close to that homesite that is so extensive and deep none of my removal methods have ever been completely effective. Starting about two years ago, when I neglected to keep the popualtion in check it expanded some and starting digging into what must be a pretty big pile of glass. Ever now and then anothe clump of glass and pottery pieces would get pushed up out of the hole. I now have a shoebox full of old glass pieces and china and pottery pieces as well. An anthropologist I know told me that the squirrels are probably digging into the dump or outhouse area. I have noticed also that some pieces of glass show signs of melting partly or completely so some of the glass clearly was burned. I have many pieces of old soda bottles from "Samuel Soda Springs" which had been supplying soda water in the second half of the 1800s and early 1900s. It may be that this is just a dump that formed after the home was abandoneded and that all I will find is broken stuff, but I would love to find an intact Samuel Soda Springs bottle among other things. The anthropologist told me that what I should do is find what would have beent the cellar for the home as many times those are just filled in with all sorts of intact stuff. In my dreams, the squirrels are digging in that cellar which became a dump briefly before the whole site was converted to orchard. Now, finally the old almond tree that the squirells are digging into is dying so I have to take it down, dig out the roots etc. anyways So instead of the usual tractor-based workI have decided to do a more gentle removal of the tree and extensive dig to find the stockpile the squirrels are in and excavate it. Hence, I joined this forum figuring I will find some advice and etc on how to go about this. I assume one gets a shovel, marks the ground a bit and the digs, gently. I will not start of course until the rainy season is over (not that we have gotten much this winter) and I will also need to screen off my sprinkers while I am digging as my orchard watering would otherwise turn the dig into an adobe clay cesspool. Anyways, this is my first post and I guess I will start doing some searches in this forum or just read posts learning about how to go about doing this. If anyone can suggest a good "how to" collumn etc, please point me at it. I will post a few photos of the pieces I have soon.

 

[johnmac]

Photos from the squirrel-produced stuff.Some Samuel Soda Springs bottle parts. Supposedly the spring and location where Samuel Soda Springs was bottled was the town of Monticello which is now at the bottom of Lake Berryessa. It is/was about 15 miles from Silveyville. But some information about Samuel Soda Springs seems to link it Napa Valley where the "Samuel" in the name also did business. Napa Valley is about another 30 miles west over the inland coastal hills that separate Napa Valley from the Central Valley of California."Miners" is the name on this piece of bottle.The pottery shards are good examples of the pieces of pottery popping up.

 

[zecritr]

Welcome to the ForumI'm to new a digger myself to offer advice so just saying that looks like it will be a fun dig got some interestingpossibilities there

 

[sandchip]

Them critters can push that stuff out, but they can't heave the whole ones out. Probably some good stuff down there. Glad to see a squirrel finally do something productive.

 

[hemihampton]

Interesting, Wish I lived nearby to help you out. I'd start digging for whole ones. LEON.

 

[David Fertig]

Grab a shovel and have at it. Those shards look promising.

 

[cowseatmaize]

Them critters can push that stuff out, but they can't heave the whole ones out.

They were one piece in the ground. They bust them up for easier removal.Better get at it quick.[][]

 

[andy volkerts]

Hello John. do you own a backhoe, if so, then I would use that to at least scrape off the first few feet of earth where you are going to dig. But first you might consider using the map to accurately pinpoint the location of the house. squirrels in a orchard can cover a lot of ground, and unless the trees are pretty old, you will not gain anything by tearing them up looking for a few bottles. You can buy a napa soda springs, or Samuel soda springs bottle from a bottle show for a few bucks, they are not worth too much. but there a lot of western bottles that are worth big bucks. So if you can pin point the area down to a few square yards, you might do some good. but first use the back hoe or digger to get off the top layers of earth before you use shovels or as bottle diggers do made up diggers, kinda like garden trowels and handrakes, hoes for when you get into the trash layer. What would be really good is if you can find the exact front and back of said house, and try for the privy. if the house was there in 1890 to 1900 and it was torn down and the cellar (if there was one) was filled in, there might be some good bottles, but what would be in the privy would be older, and that's what you want to find. there aren't too many 1900 to 1905 bottles that are worth much. To give you and idea of what to look for, an old 1870s vintage Dickey chemist in cobalt blue or dr minties nephreticum dark green aqua medicine bottle would be worth approx. 40 to 100 bucks considering condition , which is ALL important, in bottle collecting, nicks and chips and haze really bring down a bottles value quick. if you should find a California fig syrup, commit suicide or throw it away, as most collectors won't touch one with a ten foot pole. by now you should be figuring out, that this is not an easy hobby to undertake, and will cause you a lot of hard labor or big bucks if you go for the good glass. a Cundurango bitters bottle will set you back several thousand bucks in any shade of green, let alone the regular color, amber. I could go on for quite awhile on the subject of good bottles versus trash, but I don't want to discourage you completely. Before you do anything, go to a few bottle shows and see what is out there and what you might like. there is a site online named western bitters news, and they list all the bottle shows in northern California. one is coming up in april in Antioch right down the road. anyways you have gotta narrow down the area where the bottles may be, and I have a feeling that's not gonna be an easy thing to do. AND if they burned that old dump in that cellar, nothing is gonna be any good. I have been at this for fifty years, so if you need any more help, I would be glad to give you more suggestions........Andy