# Finding Bottle Dumps



## MABottleHunter (Mar 27, 2011)

How do you guys do it? you're amazing!
 I'm most likely one of the younger if not youngest members of this forum and i've started bottle hunting last fall and it's got to be my favorite hobby out of metal detecting/coin collecting and i'm yet to try stamps 
 The hardest part to me seems to be finding sites, all the youtube videos, posts and blogs etc people are pulling out 100's of bottles and they all seem to be old..
 I've found 2 sites, 1 which was like a 50's and still really crappy and another was just a like varying dated dump still didn't yeild anything besides a nice carter ink 

 I'm going searching tomorrow but most likely i wont yeild any new locations, any tips for a beginner?

 Thanks! - Dave


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## JOETHECROW (Mar 27, 2011)

Hey MA...here's a link to a post with some tips I just gave to another newer member(grugirl)

https://www.antique-bottles.net/forum/m-395735/mpage-1/key-/tm.htm#396070


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## woodswalker (Mar 27, 2011)

Good luck and welcome to the forum!! And you'd be surprised in the range of ages here...once you find that first bottle your hooked(doesn't matter how old you are!) And try and find some local bottle or metal detecting clubs in your area....I started out by just walking the woods when I found my first bottle or dump....also I drive thru the country and find old foundations I can spot from the road...just watch for the no trespassing signs!! Also there is a place here on the site where you can post and look for digging partners....
  Last summer I was invited on my first privy dig by a member of the forum and it was great!! You will meet some great people on here...they are full of information and always willing to lend a bit of advice or knowledge!!


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## Dewfus (Dec 21, 2019)

MABottleHunter said:


> How do you guys do it? you're amazing!
> I'm most likely one of the younger if not youngest members of this forum and i've started bottle hunting last fall and it's got to be my favorite hobby out of metal detecting/coin collecting and i'm yet to try stamps
> The hardest part to me seems to be finding sites, all the youtube videos, posts and blogs etc people are pulling out 100's of bottles and they all seem to be old..
> I've found 2 sites, 1 which was like a 50's and still really crappy and another was just a like varying dated dump still didn't yeild anything besides a nice carter ink
> ...


I've been doing this for about 7mths only because I stumbled upon an awsome spot ..but I e found 1 other that is a decent one..by listening to a YouTuber ...look for a cemetary near water or a patch of woods ...they arnt always there but I did some researching at public library  like the video said and I'm 1 for 1 lol ..look up sandborn maps of places around you and look for beverage fa stories bottle factories etc. .see were there located ir sometimes old news paper articles with key words like dump ....garbage broken glass and there might be something mentioned about it or a grand opening etc.  I have found a few bottles in a couple creeks there known for bottles and or bottle dump sites...Happy hunting


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## glass_digger (Dec 21, 2019)

I've found some good spots by using google earth. but I live in the desert where there are not a lot of trees so I can see old dump sites pretty well.


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## slugplate (Dec 22, 2019)

I've gone to my county library and looked at old maps, particularly around 1890s. Some say it's too late to find the older stuff, but keep in mind the houses were built before the map was created. Much harder to find maps before 1870s... at least in my area. Then look for ponds, streams, creeks, rivers, etc, waterways certainly don't change as drastically as towns and that's where a majority of homesteaders dumped their goodies. If it's a landlocked area, it's a matter of hunting them, unless you find a privy or trash pit. Lastly, it's good ol' fashioned legwork hunting where old homes once stood, check maps and town records they help immensely! I found 4 dump sites this way. Of course you may find that homes have been built on those sites and are inaccessible, just keep looking for open terrain, the wooded areas are best for me. The good news is that 3 of my dump sites them are within a 1/2 mile from my house, one of which is spread out over an enormous area, it's not a concentrated dump. The last site is a whopping 2 miles away, has been dug, but I'm still finding 1800s stuff off of the main dig areas someone else created. Keep in mind, I don't jump anyone else's site! I just think how I feel when people jump my sites, it is very aggravating. Sorry for being so verbose, I just wanted to get in as much info as I could. The one below I've been working this site for two years because goodies were strewn all over the place, not one area.


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## CanadianBottles (Dec 22, 2019)

Finding the municipal dump - where those Youtubers pull hundreds of bottles out of - is usually not that hard.  If you live in a small town, it's typically just a matter of exploring the river banks in the old part of town.  There are almost always dumps of some sort there, though whether or not you can dig in them is another matter.  If you live in a city the process is pretty similar, in that case focus on where rivers flow through the historically poor parts of town since they sure weren't going to be dumping garbage within smelling range of the rich people's houses.  Also remember that it's hard to build residential buildings on old dumps, so look for riverside sports complexes, universities, maintenance yards, and that sort of thing.  Sometimes high rise apartment buildings were built on old dumps but small residential buildings usually weren't.  There's also a good chance that your municipal government has at least a rough idea of where the old dumps are.  See if they've published a map or list of contaminated sites somewhere online, the last two cities I've lived in both have a map of all the old dumps freely available on their site.


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