Old time Diggers

[deepwoods]

Anyone here ever talk to anyone that dug back in the early and mid-sixties? Needless to say things were alot more wide open and unexplored back then. One old timer loves to tell me about the time he found "a case" of O.P H. Lakes Indian Specific in an old dump and left most of 'em at the site because he "only needed a couple" (went back and got the rest after a few days when he heard people liked 'em). Another guy I know pulled two Henion's Cure for Malaria's (now worth 5g's each) out of a ravine dump. And they tell me that a teal druggist bottle that I've been trying to score for years was "common" back then. Then the seventies came along and the landscape was turned upside down and now alot of the stuff is scarcer then hens teeth. Luckily, they didnt get everything, just most of the visible stuff.

 

[downeastdigger]

You hear a lot of "fish tales" out there, lots of exaggeration. I may be too skeptical, but sometimes I feel like the diggers who tell old tales have re written history a little, and the quiet diggers are the ones who show up at the shows with great new finds.
There was lots of stuff out there in the 70's ( 35 years ago!). But there's plenty of stuff out there still to be dug. Just look at some of the stuff you see posted on this and other sites.
I always think the digging is finally over, and up pops a rare medicine dug by somebody, it's pretty cool.
Bram

 

[deepwoods]

Bram - I think it may still be a little more open up where you are. Around here (outside Rochester N.Y) in the seventies, it was like Sherman's scortched-earth march to the sea. But, at the same time, you're right: there are still great bottles to be hunted down (I've hunted down a couple myself) we just have to be a little more resourceful and persistent.

 

[cobaltbot]

Can't talk for the sixty's but the eaerly 70's in my area (MD near Baltimore) there were plenty of dumps to be found with good bottles sitting right on top of the ground that obviously no collector had seen or bothered with. These dumps are rare today, but some are still out there. I have come across a couple in modern times (no killer, but good bottles). I put in a lot of woods time (not lately) going places I think no one has ventured for a while and have run across stray bottles, usually flasks that look like they have been laying there a hundred years exactly as the day they were dropped or set down, but an undiscovered surface dump is a rare thing indeed.

 

[GuntherHess]

wow, I dug bottles back in the sixties, does that make me an old timer[]

 

[Pettydigger]

I've had some oldtimers, most of which have past on now tell me they used to shoot bottles in dumps with sling-shots when they was kids.[] And they used old clay marbles as ammo!

 

[deepwoods]

Gunther - In a word: Yes. Just kidding. So how was it? Are the guys that say you-shoulda-been-here-yesterday-when-the-fish-were-biting exagerrating?

 

[PhilaBottles]

back when Carcharodontosaurus and Velociraptor (V. mongoliensis) roamed the earth, the early limnivore bottle diggers (Bottle. tridecemlineatus) risked the clutches of the deadly neighbors. They dug caches of figural skull poisons, rare bitterus, and OP bottleus.

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[FIGGINS DIGGINS]

About 25 or so years ago I started surface-hunting and digging bottles ona riverside dump in my hometown. I thought for many years that I had to be one of the first to discover this place because it was so good and produced so many bottles. While researching at the Historical Society I learned from a very elderly lady that her husband and his friends used to race each other up there when the river was falling to get those old bottles. That had to have been when I was just a sparkle in my Daddy's eye. After over 20 years of digging there myself I know for a fact that there are still bottles there now. A bit fewer, a little farther between, and a little deeper. Just gotta be willing to move a few hundred pounds of rip-rap or venture into the harder to dig spots. Keep digging and they will come. I have been in a slump for months now but I never stop researching new prospects and hunting those tough spots. The work and patience in the slow times always pays off, eventually.

 

[baltbottles]

Like you all I've heard my share of stories but i would bet most of them are true. I just take a drive through downtown and look at all the high rises and parking lots and expressways they cut through the city and think of al the early houses that stood there. Many of these sites were dug in the 60s and 70s and i'm sure the finds were similar to the stuff i find on construction sites today. Alot of junk, some better bottles, and a couple really rare finds. I don't think the digging now is much worse then it was 30 years ago. The only thing now is people are more worried about being suied so getting permssion is harder. I think anyone that puts in the time and effort will have some amazing finds. My digging partners both tell me about bottles they have found over the years that today would be worth $20,000 plus that they sold for a couple thousand then. And i've dug plenty of broken bottles that would bring that kind of money if they had been whole. All i can say is your probably not going to dig 20 privies and find a 20k bottle but if you dig 2000 privies i'd say you have a very good chance of finding that 20k bottle and i'm sure along the way you wil find a couple 5k bottles and a bunch of 1-3k bottles and a box or two of bottles worth a couple hundred or more and a truck load or two of stuff worth less then $50 bucks. I do'nt think thoes legendary finds we all hear about have anything to do with luck or better digging sites i think it has more to do with just the shear amount of digging that was going on at the time. ther was more redevolpment and more people digging. so there were more great finds.

Chris