Some questions on older bottle dumps.

[PlaneDiggerCam]

Do older dumps tend to be more sparse than newer ones as far as bottles go? I have a dump that ranges from the 1860s to the 1880s and has very few bottles about 1 bottle per every 2 square foot. There is lots of ash and I did find a hinge mold base. Also found a 1840s Jackson Victory button which is a big difference with the dump age. I am not used to digging dumps this old (usually I get 1890s-1920s era dumps). Has anyone had any luck finding good bottles in a dump like I described? Is there something I should be looking for to find more glass? Any tips?

Thanks,
PlaneDiggerCam

 

[hemihampton]

I've dug a lot of dumps just like this, where you gotta move a lot of dirt before you find a bottle, it's a lot of hard work. you gotta decide if it's worth it. For example, a dump after 1900 maybe not, But if you got a good chance of possibly digging some 1860's pontil bottles maybe it would be worth it, you don't know until you try. But, I've dug with many people that if they don't dig a bottle within there first foot down then they want to give up & move on, I'm not like that. Good Luck. LEON.

 

[slugplate]

Kind of the reason I stick with farm dumps or places where early homesteads were located. There is some digging but most of the goodies are on the surface or 4"-8" below the surface. Shown below are three pix from a spot I had located where three homes existed in the early 1800s. There are no obvious telltales here like you have in larger dumps and there is NO central location for where they dumped stuff. I use a pitchfork to probe areas where I think bottles 'might be'. I'd say 2 days out of 10 I find a goodie. The pix below were from a hunt and probe I did on last Tuesday. I probed out a ton of broken ironstone, crocks, meds, and a few broken blobs. However, I did get an intact blob beer. BTW, I agree with LEON 100%