Sniffed out a brand-new dump! Test-hole yields tasty TOC trash!

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Bass Assassin

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Great post and story. The pectoral syrup is fantastic. Sorry about the jug and the cracked meds. Here's hoping you'll get that stenciled jug some time soon. The citrate in Aqua is a great-looking bottle. I've got a feeling this site is going to be a good one for you. As always, thanks for the in situ photos, you can never post too many of those. Wishing you the best of luck and please keep us posted.
 

Plumbata

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Thanks for the comments everyone! I went back for a dig, and although I haven't struck it rich yet I learned more about the dump. I'd now tentatively date that main rust area to between 1905 and 1907 (I'm leaning toward 1906), but under that layer is a 6 inch cap, under which is another refuse and ash layer which is undoubtedly older, but I'm not sure by how much. The bottom of this layer is 8.5 or 9 feet below the surface, and it's possible that more layers are beneath it. In the rusty layer, many plain and thick pieces of dinnerware were found mixed primarily with food jars and food-related bottles, along with 2 pieces of institutional china which look like little creamers, so I'm thinking that a lot of the zone is composed of waste from a hotel or restaurant. Not the most ideal garbage to poke through (I'd much prefer digging through a pharmacy basement cleanout) but more digging may reveal other loads from more interesting sources. My finds (Cracked hutch is a Fellrath from Peoria, likely an 1890s piece):
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This would have been a pretty cool big BIM Heinz jar, but is cracked in a few spots.
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This is a nice earlier "Wakefield's Cough Syrup" from Bloomington IL. I've never dug one before, and this is a better-than-average example due to having an applied lip and interesting embossing where both "E"s in "Wakefield's" are completely missing the central arm, and instead look like blocky "C"s. This, the Blackberry balsam, Hall's Catarrh Cure, cracked hutch and all the Castorias came from the deeper layer, so I will need to open and expand the area because it has the potential to produce nice older things.
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Then i got one of these nearby. This is a bit newer, but from the same company. They are rather more common.
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My favorite of the dig, a tough "Ryan Drug Co. 1321 So. Adams St. Peoria, ILL" 3 ounce druggist, the first example from this firm that I've ever dug! It has a chip on the base (upper right in image) but aside from that is a pretty sharp bottle.
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So as you can see, the spot produces some decent stuff, but requires a good deal of digging per-find. Not a crazy goldmine (yet) but it's possible that other test holes may plop me in the middle of a rich load of good bottles, versus this less-exciting trash from a hotel/restaurant. As my dad says, "The more you dig, the luckier you are", so I intend to keep digging. [;)] Happy hunting everyone!
 

hemihampton

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I was hoping you'd dig more hutches & looks like it worked. I predict many more hutches in your future. Good luck. LEON.
 

Bass Assassin

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That Ryan Drug Co and black berry balsam I like! I got a feeling about this one. I don't want to jinx you but I think it's gonna produce some good stuff. It's got that "look" to it. Get back in there now!
 

stephengray

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You may not be bringing home lots of bottles but it seems like you will be able to find a number of good local bottles for your collection. That far down it is going to take you a while to dig that thing out so good luck finding more good bottles.
 

sunrunner

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I dig a few places of this time period , it look like your in 1900 to 1910 if you are finding any machine made stuff in there ,that's about what time your in1890s dump had no machine made containers in them from what I've experienced.
 

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