Bottle Digging

General urban exploration stuff -- location specific stuff in the categories below
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Turnspike
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Bottle Digging

Post by Turnspike »

I don't know what it is about the cooler weather that makes me want to go bottle digging, but I am getting the fever. I know of a few places around Carthage, Missouri I have access to. I am not sure yet when I will have the time, but anyone else interested?
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SubLunar
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RE: Bottle Digging

Post by SubLunar »

There's a spot that I go to every once in a while... A shipwreck occurred near the river in the 1800's and the hull is still visible when the water is low enough, so I go dig around there sometimes.

I don't know how much of this may be from the wreck (I'm pretty sure the coke bottles aren't) but it only took about 20 minutes to dig up all this stuff back in February.

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crazydrummerdude
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Re: Bottle Digging

Post by crazydrummerdude »

Did you snag any of it?
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SubLunar
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RE: Bottle Digging

Post by SubLunar »

No but I just went back today and re-found most of these. They've been scattered, but most are still intact. It's kinda hard to get to, so it remains fairly undisturbed.

The whole bank is covered in glass and there's bottles of every shape and size from tiny perfume bottles to big old milk bottles. You could spend all day there and not run out of bottles to find... I've been going to this spot since I was a kid seeking places to hang out away from parents.
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Turnspike
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RE: Bottle Digging

Post by Turnspike »

One of the spots I dig at is a roadside spot where when I was about 14, I found a 1920's Orange Crush bottle. There is a third spot where I could probably dig deep for some good stuff, but on top there is alot of 80's Mitchum cans and Kai Karate bottles.
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Mandi Milenko
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RE: Bottle Digging

Post by Mandi Milenko »

I just found a Welch's grape jelly jar from the 50s in my attic. I got pretty excited (lol).
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Freak
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RE: Bottle Digging

Post by Freak »

We've got some Privy tunnels in the Twin Cities, basically old private sewers from before the city installed sewers. You can get in there and dig through 100-year-old crap to find all kinds of cool stuff. Bottles, doll parts, combs, buttons, arc-lamp carbon rods, etc.

I joined the local bottle club and probably blew their minds, those guys stay on the surface privies, and had no idea there were entire tunnel networks full of artifacts :-P

My dad used to dig bottles in Alaska. He said the trick was to find the outhouse and then look within throwing distance for the whiskey jugs :-P

Also found a lot of Opium bottles (tiny little things) and rice wine jugs near the canneries in Alaska (gotta look on the beach at extreme low tide).
cousin
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Re: Bottle Digging

Post by cousin »

where in carthage are you digging?
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testube
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Re: RE: Bottle Digging

Post by testube »

Freak wrote:We've got some Privy tunnels in the Twin Cities, basically old private sewers from before the city installed sewers. You can get in there and dig through 100-year-old crap to find all kinds of cool stuff. Bottles, doll parts, combs, buttons, arc-lamp carbon rods, etc.

"Freak…who crawled through 500 yards of shit smelling foulness and came out clean on the other side."

;)
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testube
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Re: Bottle Digging

Post by testube »

Saw a really cool collection of bottles and other Civil War-era artifacts at the Desoto Nat'l Widlife Refuge, north of Omaha, Nebraska. This stuff was found in the wreckage of a big steamboat which had sunk back in 1865, but wasn't unearthed until sometime in the 1960's.

Not what you'd expect to see at a Wildlife Refuge, but definitely worth checking out if you're ever in that area, particularly if you like old bottles!

http://www.fws.gov/midwest/desoto/bertrand.htm
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