Question about creeks

[jbo0421]

Question when looking for creeks or small rivers to walk should they be near or in a town or city or would any random creek hold bottles? Because there are numerous creeks around but no significant "big town or city" closet would be 40min away

 

[gdog68]

You can look at old historic maps of the county or region you are in to look for old households or farms next to creeks or rivers. You don't necessarily have to be in a large city or town to find dumps or bottles in rivers or creeks. I have had more luck looking at creeks, rivers that are just outside of the town by a mile or two, and if there is old roads that go along a river or creek Even better. Best of luck

 

[CanadianBottles]

Any creek which had people living on its banks in the 19th century can have bottles. Urban areas of course will have a lot more bottles but they also generally have more people looking for bottles. In rural areas you're more likely to have been the first person to look for bottles there, at least in quite a while. If there's a small town on the banks of the creek then your chances of finding something good will increase quite a bit. "Small" is a relative term as well, a place with a couple thousand people living in it today wouldn't be considered a big town by any means but in the 19th century that would be large enough to be a place where plenty of bottles were dumped.

 

[Sitcoms]

Any creek which had people living on its banks in the 19th century can have bottles. Urban areas of course will have a lot more bottles but they also generally have more people looking for bottles. In rural areas you're more likely to have been the first person to look for bottles there, at least in quite a while. If there's a small town on the banks of the creek then your chances of finding something good will increase quite a bit. "Small" is a relative term as well, a place with a couple thousand people living in it today wouldn't be considered a big town by any means but in the 19th century that would be large enough to be a place where plenty of bottles were dumped.

Going to piggyback off CanadianBottles here with a bit of my experience as I tend to prefer walking rivers over digging. I've had most of my luck just downstream of villages in my area (Maine), not necessarily near the cities or larger towns. These places had maybe 20-40 families living in them during their height around 1850-1910, mostly centered around a mill or tannery. Generally trash was dumped downstream from the village so to keep a potable source of water. Old maps will be your best resource - even if its one or two old house foundations in the woods, they had to dump their trash somewhere!

Generally near the bigger cities I'll only find 1-2 bottles, things that have only just recently been washed out from the bottom and not picked over by the many who have walked the same banks. I would say you'd have better chances near big cities where the water height and speed changes drastically, as to disturb the bottom more and wash out more bottles.

 

[E]

Hey JBO, keep in mind that the area around us (JBO and I search the same general areas) has been heavily picked for a number of years. Even when I arrived in the area back in the late 70's the area had already been scoured pretty well. I was a bit bitter about being late to the party, but I did find a lot of good stuff searching in the spoils - now I long for those days with pickins as slim as they are now. I still search the creeks and do get lucky from time to time. If you can get there first after a particularly big rain event (Get there First-est with the Most-est as some Civil War General used to say) you can often score. I won't give away our exact location, but I have found some decent stuff in the creeks around several local County Courthouses after flash floods. A couple of the local courthouses feature some wild thick and wild streams, if you can fight your way through you may find something - I can assure you you will at least find some very interesting shards. To me any creek that I can search is a good creek - you never know what might wash out , and if you really take your time you may find some Native American artifacts as well. I prolly won't be able to make it out your way again till after Xmas, but I will try to hook up with you or at least leave you a couple local bottles...

 

[LITTLE RHODY]

Question when looking for creeks or small rivers to walk should they be near or in a town or city or would any random creek hold bottles? Because there are numerous creeks around but no significant "big town or city" closet would be 40min away

I have found here in Massachusetts that you can often purchase for small money copies of maps from the 1700s and 1800s showing where people had homes in those days. Sometimes the maps will show you where roads no longer exist from those time periods. The homes have long vanished but partial foundations or outhouses and dump sites can still be located. Keep your eyes open for stone walls. Farmers would often throw their trash on the other side of the stone wall, out of site..out of mind. But far often the dump site would be in the streams and creeks. Bill Rose Little Rhody Bottle Club