I, by no means, have a large bottle collection. Through years of treasure hunting, I have come across my share in dump areas, outhouse pits, and some just laying on top of the ground.  I am not, a bottle expert but have certainly had several friends that are.

A good bottle digger can walk a promising area, located on an old map or eyeballed from the road, and see the subtle dips in the ground that signal an old out house pit. Next the bottle probe comes out and the hollow area is probed. They can tell the difference in the feel from rock and glass as they slowly push the probe into the hole. Two feet any direction and the probe may go in six inches, however when the pit is located it goes in the full three to four foot length. Out come the shovels and the fun begins.

BUT- I’m not a bottle digger. It would take me a month to dig the six feet to the goodies. I’m more like the buzzard who looks for scavenging opportunities. This may be shallow dumps located by glass on the surface or previously dug dumps that offer a chance to continue to dig or to sift the dirt that came out of the hole for dump goodies such as coins, artifacts, and marbles.

I was working at a hospital that decided to do a major building addition that would connect to my department. I was able to watch progress out the window. All the usual site preparation was done before they decided to bring in the heavy equipment to dig the “garden level” of the new addition. Immediately it became evident that they had hit a city dump. With each scoop, bottles tumble out of the loose dirt, some still intact, others broken. After work, and for several days following, I went out and pulled the bottles from the piles of dirt. Many were pharmacy bottles with graduations on them and an occasional talker. I’ll explain that in a minute. Colors were everywhere. There were green wine bottles, brown ale bottles, blue broom seltzer bottles, and many others.  In addition, the building coordinator pulled out a stack of old license plate from Colorado that were serial numbered. They were from somewhere around 1913 and were in fairly good shape. That will make a good display.

I mentioned talkers. Talkers are embossed bottles. Embossed bottles usually have the name of the company on them as in soda bottles, or may indicate medicinal use or the warning that the bottle contains poison. All are highly collectable. Many collectors specialize in Bitters bottles, poison bottles, and ink wells, one of the most popular. The embossing can be a history of the area, can illustrate sales reach of the product, or can surprise you with the history of products you are already familiar with. (Lea and Perrins Worchestershire Sauce has been around forever as has Heinz.)

Many people just dumped their trash including bottles into the outhouse pit. It was easy and convenient. It did necessitate digging a new pit periodically since the pit would eventually fill with things that didn’t break down. If there were other options, that might be the better way to go. This would mean either a town dump where people dumped their garbage or a nearby creek or ditch that they could dump it in to hopefully get washed away. To find these places, look for broken glass concentrated on the surface. Once you find them, dig a shallow test pit. If you find a small dump, it may or may not be very deep. The arroyo ones have a tendency to be long and shallow while the dumps can be many feet deep. If you are going for the deep ones in either a dump or outhouse pit, be careful. Do not tunnel. This is especially easy to do in a dump since usually the bottles are covered by unproductive overburden. You need to knock this down and get it out of the way periodically. Tunneling can mean disaster and a collapse can come without warning.

Obviously when you pull a beautiful talker from a hole in one piece, you will be excited, especially if it is an unusual cobalt blue bottle or a bitters bottle. What are less obvious are the things that you will pull out and possible even leave behind if you don’t check the dirt being removed from the hole. I have mentioned marbles which are plentiful and may be valuable. Coins left in pockets of discarded clothing can be old and valuable. I know of a person that pulled a $10 1895 gold coin out of a sifter and another that noticed an imprint of a coin in the edge of a hole he was working. When he checked the dirt that had fallen from that area, he recovered a seated liberty half dollar from the 1850s. Buttons of all kinds and designs will show in a sifter. Trade tokens are also fairly common as they were discarded when sponsoring businesses closed. They can be very valuable. See my hub on trade tokens at http://hubpages.com/hub/Trade-Tokens--The-Unknown-Collectible. You will find other collectables such as one of my favorite dump finds, a hotel key fob from the late 1800s from the Hotel Lennox in Florence, Colorado. It is old enough that I have not been able to find any history and the residents that I know there do not remember it. It is a very decorative piece shaped like a suitcase.

If you have read my hubs you know, I like to show off my finds. Bottles, once cleaned up, offer a wonderful conversation piece and add color to any décor. Framed and displayed finds do the same. You worked for it, show it off and share yours and this country’s Treasured Pasts.