One of the first bottles to come from the town site of Maine Prairie was a cylindrical pickle ~ aqua in color ~ open pontil ~ a real gem.
At low tide a black band of anarobic muck was visible. About a foot in width, located midway down the exposed bank between lighter caramel colored clay. We guess this bottle rich band was the result of the slickens that traveled down the valley from the gold dredging further up in the Sierras ~ hydraulic wash that plagued the California water ways. Entire Sierra towns were literally washed off the map in the quest for gold. The rivers in the Sacramento valley raised 15 feet during the first winter's rain because of the newly arrived silt & it's displacement. The History of Sacramento County by Thompson & West relate how the town fathers of Sacramento pulled a plow behind a steamboat back & forth in front of the wharfs in an effort to get the slickens to move on in the river current.
The bottle vein wasn't always easy to find. The banks were often undercut & hung down several feet to the water. When this was the case, I'd hold my breath & slip up under the bank at low tide. There was stale barely breathable air & a visible stretch of area that sometimes held bottles. Light filtered through wild rose bush & beaver cuts. More than one bottle was found in this undercut including a Warner's Safe Diabetes cure & this pickle. It seemed a worthwhile adventure.
Most of the bottles had drifted to the East side of the slough in the prevailing S/W wind. Obviously these bottles were part of the trash from the flat boats as they waited to be loaded with grain for San Francisco.
What a Tom Sawyer life ~ me & Indian Joe ~ along way from the Mississippi River.[
]
At low tide a black band of anarobic muck was visible. About a foot in width, located midway down the exposed bank between lighter caramel colored clay. We guess this bottle rich band was the result of the slickens that traveled down the valley from the gold dredging further up in the Sierras ~ hydraulic wash that plagued the California water ways. Entire Sierra towns were literally washed off the map in the quest for gold. The rivers in the Sacramento valley raised 15 feet during the first winter's rain because of the newly arrived silt & it's displacement. The History of Sacramento County by Thompson & West relate how the town fathers of Sacramento pulled a plow behind a steamboat back & forth in front of the wharfs in an effort to get the slickens to move on in the river current.
The bottle vein wasn't always easy to find. The banks were often undercut & hung down several feet to the water. When this was the case, I'd hold my breath & slip up under the bank at low tide. There was stale barely breathable air & a visible stretch of area that sometimes held bottles. Light filtered through wild rose bush & beaver cuts. More than one bottle was found in this undercut including a Warner's Safe Diabetes cure & this pickle. It seemed a worthwhile adventure.
Most of the bottles had drifted to the East side of the slough in the prevailing S/W wind. Obviously these bottles were part of the trash from the flat boats as they waited to be loaded with grain for San Francisco.
What a Tom Sawyer life ~ me & Indian Joe ~ along way from the Mississippi River.[
]
