f1addict
Active Member
A quick background. When I was young I spent my summers with my grandfather in the mountains. I met many people there, including a girl named Kimberly, who's grandparents owned the cafe at the lake where Grandpa and I spent most of our time. Kimberly and I had many adventures, one of them was to go to this old mine dump and dig for buried treasures. I remember finding all kinds of interesting stuff but mostly just rusted tin cans and odd iron pieces interspersed with large quantities of broken glass of all colors.
Flash forward 24 years. We have always kept in contact, first by mail, then by email and very recently by telephone. Three weeks ago she flew into town and we went to visit her grandparents (who live in my area and are now in their mid-90s), following that, we made the 7 hour drive back up to the lake where we spent our childhood.
During this trip, we decided to see if we could relocate the dump. I had looked for it in years past but had not been able to locate it again. Together, we managed to find it, untouched after all these years. There were still large masses of rusting metal with the occasional green, brown, clear, or cobalt glass shard here and there. Thinking like adults now (rather than teenagers) we thought that it might be a good idea to dig a little so we grabbed whatever we could find to scoop away the surface. What we found was amazing, bottles that were completely intact, many of them with dates. It was her understanding that the mine had been abandoned in 1908, however we found a Delaware Punch bottle with a date of March 24, 1921 so apparently the miners stayed in the area for some time after the mine closing. We did find numerous bottles with stampings from the late 19th century, which coincided with our recollection of the history of that area.
Our most amazing find was a liquor bottle of some kind, cap in place, and still containing a small amount of crystal clear liquid. We have no idea how to determine anything about the bottle. There are stampings on the bottom and while the cap is somewhat deteriorated, it appears to say "The Calyer Distilling Co." which I had no luck with on the internet. Any suggestions on what my next step should be?
We'll be revisiting the site in a couple weeks to see what else we can find. This time we'll be armed with more appropriate tools for the task.
Sorry my introduction was so long-winded.
Flash forward 24 years. We have always kept in contact, first by mail, then by email and very recently by telephone. Three weeks ago she flew into town and we went to visit her grandparents (who live in my area and are now in their mid-90s), following that, we made the 7 hour drive back up to the lake where we spent our childhood.
During this trip, we decided to see if we could relocate the dump. I had looked for it in years past but had not been able to locate it again. Together, we managed to find it, untouched after all these years. There were still large masses of rusting metal with the occasional green, brown, clear, or cobalt glass shard here and there. Thinking like adults now (rather than teenagers) we thought that it might be a good idea to dig a little so we grabbed whatever we could find to scoop away the surface. What we found was amazing, bottles that were completely intact, many of them with dates. It was her understanding that the mine had been abandoned in 1908, however we found a Delaware Punch bottle with a date of March 24, 1921 so apparently the miners stayed in the area for some time after the mine closing. We did find numerous bottles with stampings from the late 19th century, which coincided with our recollection of the history of that area.
Our most amazing find was a liquor bottle of some kind, cap in place, and still containing a small amount of crystal clear liquid. We have no idea how to determine anything about the bottle. There are stampings on the bottom and while the cap is somewhat deteriorated, it appears to say "The Calyer Distilling Co." which I had no luck with on the internet. Any suggestions on what my next step should be?
We'll be revisiting the site in a couple weeks to see what else we can find. This time we'll be armed with more appropriate tools for the task.
Sorry my introduction was so long-winded.
