glass man
Well-Known Member
I just missed it!
Not long before I got into bottle collecting...there was to be a new park in ATLANTA in the Bankhead area.
Now on wiki it says the park opened in 1931...so maybe it was enlarged much later It also says it is planned to be enlarged![again?]Watch for this bottle diggers...
Any hoo...this park was on a huge dump circa pre civil war up to 1890s!A huge ditch that went round and round the hill was dug out with a backhoe or somen to allow bottle collectors to get at the bottles!!I heard people were shoulder to shoulder digging!The only catch was any pontil bottles were to be turned over to be given to the University of Georgia to be put on displayed at UGA .[yeah right!I was told how many were smuggled out.]
Unbelieveable bottles were found including hutch cokes!I saw bottles from this dig show up for a few years at flea markets,etc. and people would tell me of digging there and how many were not even bottle collectors!
Later on I did get in on digging there as bottle collectors started digging there again even though it was already a park!We even dug up the parking lot...why we were not busted or run off I don't know to this day...all I ever dug though was a dang aqua common Bixby ink/shoe polish/bottle...eveidently the 1st diggers got the most of the bottles ..yet some good ones were still being dug.
People dug very deep..I remember looking way down a hole at a guy as he was digging out a stone ware jug!
I did buy a INDIAN FIG SYRUP QUITMAN GA. bottle at a antique shop for 3 bucks that I sold to a MR.TOM HICKS that still had it in his collection last time I talked to him..it is a rare GA. bottle and his collection was on the cover a few years ago in the bottle mag.I saw the bottle on one of his shelves..it stood out cause I had painted the embossing...He paid me 100 bucks for it...not bad in the 70s!
Man wish I coulda been on the original dig.
Wondering if any on here has heard of this and maybe even got in on the digging? JAMIE
Not long before I got into bottle collecting...there was to be a new park in ATLANTA in the Bankhead area.
Now on wiki it says the park opened in 1931...so maybe it was enlarged much later It also says it is planned to be enlarged![again?]Watch for this bottle diggers...
Any hoo...this park was on a huge dump circa pre civil war up to 1890s!A huge ditch that went round and round the hill was dug out with a backhoe or somen to allow bottle collectors to get at the bottles!!I heard people were shoulder to shoulder digging!The only catch was any pontil bottles were to be turned over to be given to the University of Georgia to be put on displayed at UGA .[yeah right!I was told how many were smuggled out.]
Unbelieveable bottles were found including hutch cokes!I saw bottles from this dig show up for a few years at flea markets,etc. and people would tell me of digging there and how many were not even bottle collectors!
Later on I did get in on digging there as bottle collectors started digging there again even though it was already a park!We even dug up the parking lot...why we were not busted or run off I don't know to this day...all I ever dug though was a dang aqua common Bixby ink/shoe polish/bottle...eveidently the 1st diggers got the most of the bottles ..yet some good ones were still being dug.
People dug very deep..I remember looking way down a hole at a guy as he was digging out a stone ware jug!
I did buy a INDIAN FIG SYRUP QUITMAN GA. bottle at a antique shop for 3 bucks that I sold to a MR.TOM HICKS that still had it in his collection last time I talked to him..it is a rare GA. bottle and his collection was on the cover a few years ago in the bottle mag.I saw the bottle on one of his shelves..it stood out cause I had painted the embossing...He paid me 100 bucks for it...not bad in the 70s!
Man wish I coulda been on the original dig.
Wondering if any on here has heard of this and maybe even got in on the digging? JAMIE
