Old Baltimore Dump

[chrisboyles]

I know there is a old dump in or close by Baltimore city where you can find alot of pre 1900 stuff. The problem is i have no clue where it is. All the info i have is; you have to hunt in low tide and its in a marshy creek near the city. Does anyone know where this is? I have been looking for a while now but am still unable to dig up a single concise location. Any help will be very much appreciated.

 

[GuntherHess]

Try joining the Balimore bottle club.

 

[cobaltbot]

Yeah, I'd like to know where one is close to the water too. On these hot days it would be nice to dig and take a dip, probably not the cleanest water though........Chris, you never did send me your address for that milk bottle.

 

[GuntherHess]

ya, I wouldnt describe digging in the old baltimore dump as a refreshing experience[]

 

[madman]

hey chris, i could swear i remember someone talking about that dump on this forum, it was quite awhile back, i remember them talking about searching inat low tide, theres other collectors on this forum from baltimore check with them good luck mike

 

[kastoo]

1. Ask an old timer where the old dumps are

2. In the old days people dumped by the water

3. I heard libraries have records of old city dumps

4. Ask the city

5. Search the entire baltimore bay shoreline until you find evidence

6. do a websearch of digger stories and look at pics to see if they reveal anything familiar

 

[JohnRoy]

I am a librarian by trade, and I found the following "digging story" online about a Baltimore Dump by a cove:

Well I got up this morning with nothing planned to do so I turned on the weather channel and when I seen that the tides where just right this after noon for a dig at the old Baltimore city trash dump. This dump is in a marshy cove just outside of Baltimore city so I can only dig at low tide. So I gathered up my digging tools some buckets and my hip waders loaded them in the car and left. I got there about 4:00 picked out a spot and started digging. I dug down through about 3 feet of mud and broken up dishes and bottles before I reached the layer of rust colored clay (this is were the good stuff is found). The first bottle I dug was a small Aqua Davis & Miller Druggists Baltimore. The next one was a Jas. P. Frames & Co Baltimore druggists bottle that has a mortar & pestle and a shield with an anchor embossed on it. Next I found a very rare J. M. Berger Balto Blob top soda Then another Blob soda this time it was a common city steam bottling house. Then I dug for quite some time only finding unembossed drug bottles many very odd shapes. Then the next thing to come out of the hole was a deep green three piece mold master ink next another ink it was an aqua cone which I found to be embossed on the shoulder with carters (never seen carters embossed on the shoulder of a cone before any info would be great). Next I found a very early (almost pontiled) L.M. Green Prop Woodbury. N.J. Then I found some more unembossed food and drug bottles. But just as I was about to get out of the hole I saw a nice bottom sticking out of the side so I started to carefully dig around it thinking that it would be missing the top but to my surprise it was whole. It is clear and completely unembossed but it has some great whittle and a nice open pontil and is made of some of the thinnest and lightest glass that I have ever seen in a bottle of that age. It is amazing that it survived being buried for the past 150 years.

 

[madman]

HEY JONROY YEA THATS THE ONE I READ MIKE

 

[baltbottles]

Hahaha It's from my website. I used to give out the location of several dumps in marshy coves as I don't dig dumps anymore however a few diggers messed things up by digging in the bank above the high tide mark and not filling in their holes so now all these sites are posted and no digging can be done. This dosen't really affect me as I strictly dig privies in the city now but I know alot of diggers that mainly just dig these dumps and its not fair to them that I disclose the location of these dumps. So others can come in and screw things up more for them. In all honesty I think you should try covering some ground. There are alot of places that dumps can be found. Or maybe try getting in town permissions and start digging privies.

Chris

 

[JohnRoy]

See if you can find an old military topographical map. I found one for the county I live in from 1918 that shows every house in the county from the year 1918. I have used it to find houses that you'd never be able to locate using other methods, and there sometimes is an old dump near a home site. I'll try and email you personally in a couple of days with a topographical map lead for you. I've got to find the company again where I got mine from. It started with an N (somewhere in California, I believe), and I recall that they had a large inventory of detailed maps. I've used this map to help a local writer with his research on lost communities. -John