THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY

[splante]

nice bottle Iam sure you may get another chance...ditto from above interested in how you make out at the shoreline

 

[iggyworf]

Great story. Good luck on the search.

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Thanks to everyone for your comments - much appreciated.

I went to the reservoir/lake but because I had a limited amount of time I was only able to walk a fraction of the shoreline, most of which cannot be driven to and is only accessible by boat or walking for several hours. It's been years since the lake was full and at it's maximum capacity has about twelve miles of shoreline. At it's current level it has about five miles of shoreline. The area I was able to explore amounted to about 1/2 mile of shoreline and is the easiest to get to, which means a lot of weekend anglers and campers have already walked through the area and have snatched up the easy finds. But they didn't find the "Califruit" bottle pictured below. I found it in the crack of some rocks where most of the casual explorers were less likely to look. The bottle is dated 1939 and no doubt has been under water ever since - thus the loss of the acl label.

My main focus yesterday wasn't so much with the shoreline as it was with the area where the dam construction workers had there camp headquarters between about 1896 and 1912. The dam was started in 1896 and after a period of several years when the project ran out of funds was finally completed in 1912.

It was just below the site of the original camp where I found the broken upper portion of the Carboy/Demijohn bottle pictured on the next page. Based on what I know about bottle making, I estimate the age of the closure at circa 1910 and have no doubt it was used in some manner involving the dam construction and used for storing chemicals and/or a variety of other uses. It might not seem like much of a find to some, but for me it's a treasure because it's a direct link to what went on in the area during the early days of the 20th century. Incidentally, the lake and dam are located about five miles south of the old Buckman Springs bottling plant discussed previously.

I plan to explore more of the shoreline as time allows but next time will probably rent a boat so as to get to areas where others have not already picked it clean.

The Califruit bottle on the left is the one I found yesterday and the one on the right is for comparison to show what a mint example looks like. The one I found was bottled in San Diego, California and even though it's it poor shape it's one I didn't have.

(More pictures to follow)

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Here's the Carboy/Demijohn closure I found below the old dam camp. Notice the seam stops at the neck and lots of bubbles - thus probably hand-blown. The other two pictures are ... 1. 1897 Dam Camp2. Bottle closure3. Old camp on the left and Dam on the right - Circa 1918

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

And here's what the lake level looks like now. Just a few months ago the water covered the whitish areas but is below that now by a good 20 or 30 feet ...

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

P.S. I forgot to mention that the Ranges at the lake are the only ones allowed to explore the shoreline with motorized vehicles. I was told they have been using four-wheelers and picking up every old lure, anchor, and bottle they can find. I was also told they have a cache of old soda bottles stashed away that haven't been cleaned yet and that they intend to display sometime soon. The Ranger I spoke with was the only one on duty at the time and unable to get away to show me the bottles but said I could come back at some later date and they would be happy to show them to me, which I hope to do next week and take some pictures and maybe even talk them out of a couple, especially if they have duplicates.

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Lastly for the time being ... The picture on the left is of the lake around 1935 when it was at capacity. The picture in the center with the red line shows the lake's current size. The red arrow indicates the now drained cove where I found the Califruit bottle. The last picture on the right shows the approximate location of the old Buckman Springs bottling plant. Foot Note: In case you haven't already discovered it, you don't have to click on the X in the upper right corner of the images in order to switch from one to the other. All you have to do is left-click anywhere on a given picture and it will automatically change to the next one in line. Try it - it's sort of like a flicker show ...

 

[Uncle_Jarvis]

Cool thread Bob. .Love seeing the old and new pictures. .. Fascinating

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Regarding the broken Carboy-type bottle I found ...

I am only guessing as to it's age, but because it has an applied top, tooled neck, and is non-machine made, I believe it to be pre 1910 and it seems to fit the going's-on in the vicinity of where it was found which started with the dam construction in 1896.

But even more interesting than that is a series of events which began in late 1915 and climaxed in early 1916. It was in January of 1916 that the city of San Diego solicited the now infamous rainmaker, Charles Hatfield, to perform his magic and hopefully create rain over the drought stricken county. If successful, Hatfield was to be paid the sum of $10,000.00 for his services. The following link has a detailed account of the event, but I can tell you in a nutshell that not only did it start raining shortly after Hatfield set up his chemical spewing tower, but that it rained so hard and for so long that it filled Lake Morena to overflowing, which in turn caused torrents of water to rush over the spillway, creating millions of dollars of damage in it's wake between the dam and the Pacific Ocean some sixty miles to the west. The end result was that Hatfield never received a dime for his efforts. The city claimed the rain was an act of God. Hatfield filed suits against the city that remained on the books for at least twenty years, which eventually faded away with Hatfield never being paid the money he was promised.

Anyhoo ... the reason I mention this is because the Carboy bottle I found just happened to be somewhere in the vicinity of where Charles Hatfield erected his tower and had his camp. It's the type of bottle that someone like Hatfield could very easily have used for chemicals and other types of stuff used in his rainmaking process. Of course proving that the Carboy bottle and Hatfield are connected would be next to impossible, but even with those odds it's enough for me to think that maybe, just maybe the bottle was tossed away by Hatfield himself. And because the Hatfield event has such a historical aspect to it, I consider finding what might have been one of his chemical bottles to be a true treasure.

Here's the link to the detailed Hatfield account:

[URL=http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/70winter/hatfield.htm]http://www.sandiegohistor.../70winter/hatfield.htm

The attached pictures are as follows ...

1. Hatfield's chemical tower ~ 1916
2. The broken Carboy bottle
3. Hatfield in his laboratory ~ Notice the bottles on the shelves

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

And just for the fun of it, check this out ... The black & white picture was taken in 1916 after Hatfield filled the lake. Notice the size. The second picture I took the other day from approximately the same location, but after the recent draining. The third picture is a copy of the second picture but I painted it to simulate the 1916 picture. Now left-click back-and-forth between the two color pictures and you will see the lake rise and fall as if by magic. Bob the Rainmaker []