# Muskoka lakes swim finds summer 2016



## RCO

been out swimming a couple times this week , been to 3 different locations and found some bottles at 2 places . nothing really incredible so far , what you'd expect for this area and what I've been finding in years past . 


at this location found 2 broken or damaged milk jugs , one is from Acme Dairy Toronto . other just says "  Loaned Return When Empty "


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## RCO

also found this small 7oz  green bottle , no real markings on it other than a 4 or a p on bottom . likely for some sort of paper label ginger ale , maybe local or from the city


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## RCO

at another busier location I've been to before found more bottles . nothing really that unusual , type of bottles I've found there before , mostly 40's-60's stuff . 

in pictures some coca cola , Brown's Beverages Gravenhurst , pepsi , double cola , Kist , Huntsville Beverages , an old beer bottles , Welch's mini juice bottle , crush , no deposit bottle , corked medical bottle


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## RCO

found this clear corked medical bottle when swimming there and when I found it I knew it was a corked bottle but couldn't tell if it had writing on it or not , keep saying to myself , please having a name on it , then got to dock and saw it was clear and not a single marking . sort of an odd find as it appears to be much older than other bottles I found .


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## RCO

the 5 brown's bottles all cleaned up really well , the Huntsville beverages is missing all the acl label and still has rust in it so not in good shape .


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## RCO

the one double cola bottle still has a surprising amount of acl left , cleaned it up a bit and a lot is still there


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## CanadianBottles

That "Loaned Return When Empty" bottle looks like a pretty early one.  I'd guess 1910's or 20's?  And I think your little green bottle may have been a Guinness bottle if it's that dark.  The local ones were usually lighter.


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## RCO

CanadianBottles said:


> That "Loaned Return When Empty" bottle looks like a pretty early one.  I'd guess 1910's or 20's?  And I think your little green bottle may have been a Guinness bottle if it's that dark.  The local ones were usually lighter.



the milk jug was missing the bottom and any markings it might of showed , does look fairly old . 

Guinness ? not really sure what it was for . it is a bit bigger and darker than local paper ginger ale I have , but the bottle does look similar which is why I though it might be for that


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## sunrunner

typical 1940 and 50s stuff ok I guess.


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## RCO

sunrunner said:


> typical 1940 and 50s stuff ok I guess.




sort of the problem with this location a lot of stuff but not a lot of really old stuff , is an older location with a lot of history so should be old bottles down there somewhere , if I can ever find them


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## RCO

had been warm here so went back for another swim , more of the same stuff 

green 7 oz muskoka dry bottle but most of front acl faded and back acl silver colour now , 4 brown's beverages gravenhurst , 1 Huntsville beverages , 3 coca cola both 1960 , 2 pepsi - one is 1941 would of had paper label at some point , 2 green ndnr , 1 - 7 oz crush , 1 jar ,  stubby beer bottle , green beer bottle , 2 mini bottles , broken wine glass .


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## RCO

more bottles found at another location , can see here the bottom is sandy beach type sand . more coca cola bottles from 40's-60's , a 11 oz Canada dry , brown's beverages , a broken liquor bottle  and some stubby beer bottles .


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## RCO

the 2 older coca cola's weren't even that dirty and cleaned up easily , found in very shallow water near a dock . the brown's also cleaned easily . these 2 coca cola's are from 1945 and 46


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## RCO

from another location this past weekend near an old hotel , older stuff but pretty much everything there is broken , ( can safety swim there as long is your careful and remove 1-2 bottles at a time ) , other than the whiskey bottle I found , actually first not broken bottle other than modern beer bottles I have found there . broken bottles include some older liquor bottles and whiskey flasks ? the broken clear shard  pierces did say " imperial " on it before I dropped it when taking pictures


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## RCO

keep finding more stuff checked a new location at a small park that is on a lake , park looked like it had been there for a while so though bottles might be in nearby lake . clear water to see but bottom very soft and a lot of sand for bottles to hide in , did find a couple , an old 11 oz Canada dry and an older corked Listerine bottle .


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## RCO

also back at main location , which I continue to believe holds older bottles I just have to find them under the newer ones somehow  . 
more of the same 1 green muskoka dry , 5 brown's gravenhurst , 5 coca cola oldest 48 , 2 double cola , 4 green beer bottles , 2 ndnr bottles and a " stroh " Detroit beer bottle


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## RCO

the Listerine cleaned , realise its a fairly common bottle , still neat its an older corked version , seemed like an odd bottle to find swimming at a park/picnic site though


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## RCO

the Stroh beer bottle all cleaned up , maybe one of our Michigan members knows more about this bottle , I'm not really at all familar with it , looks to be fairly old , also found it on July 4 which seemed like a good day to find an American bottle in a lake in Canada 

"STROH " Detroit Registered on top and Contents 12 1/2 fluid ounces on base , no other markings


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## RCO

was a 30's kind of day yesterday , found 2 1930's era coca cola hobbleskirts and 2 1930's era soda bottles from Toronto . 
also found a brown's beverages , couple pepsi bottles , a green 11 oz Wilson's ginger ale bottle and some no deposit bottles . 
the Toronto bottles are from National Beverages ltd and Harris Crest Beverages a small and rather unknown company from Toronto .


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## RCO

the 2 30's era coca cola's from Canada . one is very clean and from 1934 , other appears to have a date of 36 on bottom , very hard to read but bottle definity an older coca cola .


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## RCO

also found another one of those National Beverages ltd bottles there , had found several others in past swims . its from Toronto Ontario and late 20's-early 30's era according to book .


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## RCO

another swim more bottle and a really old coca cola hobbleskirt . 
4 more browns gravenhurst , 7 coca cola , one from 1937 and an aqua blue 1915 patent , 2 50's era pepsi ,1 - 7 up ,  2 Canada dry , one is broken ginger beer bottle ( actually never found one before ) and a small mini bottle


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## RCO

some pics of the coca cola bottle , really old Canadian hobbleskirt , might be first hobbleskirt they used in Canada not sure yet , very surprised when I pulled it out of the lake


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## RCO

went swimming at another location , been there a few times over the years but never been swimming there yet . didn't really find much , water not that deep and able to swim around the bottom and find a few bottles . 
several no deposit coca cola and pepsi bottles , an old Heinz bottle , clear bottle with no markings , buffalo beer bottle , Canada dry 11 oz , some old beer bottle and broken shards of bottles I found .


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## RCO

the mysterious older looking clear bottle with no markings , unfortuently impossible to determine who used it and such .
also an A Schreiber beer bottle from Buffalo New York , likely from 30's or 40's according to what I saw online .


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## RCO

went for another swim at regular spot and found more bottles , a lot of the same but a couple neats finds 
8 brown's beverages include a green 7 oz bottle , 1 muskoka dry , 4 coca cola including a broken 38 , 1 hires root beer , 2 -  7 up including a no deposit bottle , 1 liquor , 2 clear no deposits , a vintage cup of some sort ? and a beer glass .


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## RCO

the one 7 up bottle is very early but in bad shape  and too faded to photograph any of the acl , does have 8 bubbles and although faded writing on back matches to another early 7 up I have . and says on back its from Toronto  ( 7 up Ontario )


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## RCO

a picture of the odd glass I found , unsure how old it is , figure 50's or earlier ? someone else I showed it to wondered if it was for ice cream floats ?


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## RCO

checked out a river location I had been to a couple years but not been back to since , an older site with a lot of history but water is a bit harder to see it and didn't seem to be as much stuff to find as before . although I still found a couple bottles 
an 10 oz sprite with label intact , broken pepsi ndnr , broken coca cola , broken liquor bottle , broken aqua hutch bottle for John Verner Toronto , damaged 7 oz green bottle for Mcdonalds beverages " natural flavours" North Bay Ontario . and a fishing lure


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## RCO

the sprite bottle is in very good condition for having been in a river all this time , was sort of hidden in some sand so maybe that protected the label ?


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## RCO

the John Verner bottle is very old , according to book from 1881-1897 , was the time period John Verner operated , think its a fairly common hutch as I seem to recall seeing some before in antique stores or bottle show , is a pic of a not broken one so you can see what it look like


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## RCO

another swim at main location , lots of bottles , nothing really stunning , neatest bottle I though was the 1921 patent orange crush but its neck is damaged . also 2 odd Marsh's juice bottles . a broken o'keefe's ginger beer bottle , Canada dry ginger beer bottle , more locals and some old beer bottles .


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## RCO

found 2 of these odd marsh's nip bottles , likely for juice maybe ? look similar to Welch's bottles


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## RCO

old orange crush , aug 22 1921 date , badly damaged neck , like this bottle too bad its broken , like to find one in better shape


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## Bob Apples

That's weird I found a orange crush that says Aug. 22 1920. Made by Coca Cola


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## RCO

Bob Apples said:


> That's weird I found a orange crush that says Aug. 22 1920. Made by Coca Cola




this article explains the orange crush bottles and the dates , aug 22 1920 isn't listed as a date used on the common orange crush bottles , your bottle was likely used by an independent bottler , its listed in another article that some do exist from such bottlers as to why it would be by coca cola I don't know ? we'd need to see a picture of it to better understand it , maybe post it in soda's section and someone might know more 
http://www.angelfire.com/yt/soda/Rosman-OC-clear.html


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## RCO

some pictures of the broken O'keefe's ginger beer bottle , don't think its that old maybe 30's or 40's era , would of had a paper label . 
base " O'keefes Beverages Limited Toronto Canada "


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## Bob Apples

The bottle is in poorer shape than yours, its still out at the dig. What I found weird was that on the bottom it says SWCCCo instead of SWCCBCo. I'll post a pic when I go out. Thanks for the info.
  Informative article, if I had to guess I have the date wrong. I bet its July 21, but will check. Thanks


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## RCO

more bottles from the weekend at another location , been to it a lot over the years so not really a lot left . did find some broken jars , small 7 oz green bottles , milk jug , 1943 coca cola and some old beer bottles . also found an older soda bottle from Toronto for JJ McLaughlin hiding near some rocks in an area I'm sure I checked already but someone missed it


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## RCO

the cleaned up JJ McLaughlin from Toronto Ontario . haven't found this bottle before so don't know a lot about it but from before 1930's as name didn't survive past than


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## coldwater diver

Hi RCO. I was just looking at the maps of Muskoga. Holy crap thats a big body of water. I would think there are multiple areas to look. Are you scuba diving there?


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## RCO

coldwater diver said:


> Hi RCO. I was just looking at the maps of Muskoga. Holy crap thats a big body of water. I would think there are multiple areas to look. Are you scuba diving there?



no not scuba diving , just swimming around docks and parks with my diving mask . I can't go into the much deeper areas where there might also be bottles . 
there is a lot of lakes around muskoka , I've been in many of them . lake muskoka is very big , so is lake rosseau . there is a couple areas of lake rosseau and Lake joseph that are 300 ft deep , guess no one will be diving there . but most other areas of that lake are fairly shallow if your close to the shore areas . 
I've wanted to go swimming on Georgian bay too and parry sound area to look for some hard to find parry sound bottles but never really found any good locations . I went swimming on Georgian bay once this summer at parry sound but didn't find anything really .


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## coldwater diver

RCO the bottles or household trash wont be that deep unless there is a wreck down there. Lookfor old maps showing where homesteads were. they would have done there spring cleaning when ice was still thick enough to drag a years worth of debris and such out far enough to not become a problem on shore where they swam. waded etc..  When it(ice) thawed it sank and there these piles sit to this day. Your surface picks show promise. Get certified looks like your in agreat big area w lots of history. Good luck and watch out for boats.   Kevin


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## CanadianBottles

I've always thought about learning to scuba dive but it sure does look expensive and the murky depths of the rivers do kind of creep me out.  There are some guys who dive for bottles around here but when I look at what they post on the Quebec forum they rarely pull anything out with any age to it.  Seems to me like they're diving in the wrong river, since they only ever seem to dive the one which wasn't used for dumping in the 19th century, but maybe the other river is too dangerous or something.


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## RCO

coldwater diver said:


> RCO the bottles or household trash wont be that deep unless there is a wreck down there. Lookfor old maps showing where homesteads were. they would have done there spring cleaning when ice was still thick enough to drag a years worth of debris and such out far enough to not become a problem on shore where they swam. waded etc..  When it(ice) thawed it sank and there these piles sit to this day. Your surface picks show promise. Get certified looks like your in agreat big area w lots of history. Good luck and watch out for boats.   Kevin



have heard other people tell me about how garbage was left on the ice to melt away in the spring and how there could be dump piles in some of the lakes . but personally haven't found one yet . but its highly likely such dumps exist in this area considering how many lakes there are and how many towns were rate beside them . 

there are places here that teach scuba diving and certify divers , there very expensive and with only really 1 month left of this swim season i'll just continue doing what I'm doing for now . maybe during the winter if I get bored i'll look more into diving options


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## RCO

CanadianBottles said:


> I've always thought about learning to scuba dive but it sure does look expensive and the murky depths of the rivers do kind of creep me out.  There are some guys who dive for bottles around here but when I look at what they post on the Quebec forum they rarely pull anything out with any age to it.  Seems to me like they're diving in the wrong river, since they only ever seem to dive the one which wasn't used for dumping in the 19th century, but maybe the other river is too dangerous or something.



I don't know what rivers would be worth checking around Ottawa , I'd imagine there'd be some bottles there somewhere if you could ever find them . there must also be a lot of logging waste around Ottawa from all the mills , there is still places here filled with old logs and cuttings from mills


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## CanadianBottles

The Rideau river is full of bottles, at least the banks of it are.  I'm not sure why no one ever seems to dive it, the section that's full of bottles isn't part of the UNESCO heritage site that the canal is, so I wouldn't think it would be illegal.  The Ottawa river is full of logs, there are so many logs sitting on the bottom that there's a company that fishes the logs up from the bottom and makes them into beautiful high-end furniture.  The Ottawa river is not, however, full of bottles, apart from modern beer bottles.  I would have thought that Hull would have dumped some of its garbage into the river but where Hull dumped its trash before the 40's or so is still a mystery.  I've walked around a lot of the island and all I've found is mosquitoes, homeless camps, and old rubble.  I have a bad feeling that when the government expropriated and demolished huge swaths of Ottawa and Hull in the sixties they dumped all the rubble on top of wherever the bottles are buried.


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## RCO

some more finds from a river area near some docks . broken liquor bottle , JD browns pop bottle ( which is older version from 30's or 40's )  , clear Hinds Orillia bottle , broken 7 oz green , 51 coca cola and larger coke .


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## RCO

the clear Hinds Orillia Ontario bottle I found , glass is in good condition but the acl is almost entirely gone , although you can clearly see it if you put it up to lights. beside it is what one looks with acl , this bottle be from late 50's or early 60's


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## RCO

some more bottles I found last weekend at another location , 2 older coca cola's from early 40's , 2 broken beer bottles , a broken 7 oz Canada dry and a mountain dew ( however acl mostly came off once I took it out of water )


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## RCO

another swim at main location , didn't find anything that interesting , oldest bottle was aqua " JD Brown " spring water bottle but its broken and only found half . also found 3 browns beverages , 5 coca cola , 2 - 7 up , pepsi , stubby , green 7 oz bottle , kist , 2 crush , ndnr , 2 beer bottles and an old jar lid


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## RCO

found a few more bottles last week at regular location , another broken JD brown spring water bottle , 4 browns bevrages , 5 coca cola , tab no deposit ,Canada dry 7 oz bottle , 2 - 7 up , 2 kist , beer bottle and some no deposit bottles , also  found an olive jar and it still had olives in it , oddly they were still greenish even though had been underwater so long .


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## RCO

the tab no deposit bottle and olive jar/bottle , didn't get a picture of it with the olives but there still was olives in it when found


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## RCO

on another swim found another one of the Canada dry ginger beer bottles , missing most of the acl , didn't really find anything else at this spot other than some modern beer bottles . its odd I hadn't found one of these bottles ever before but found 3 so far this summer .


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## coldwater diver

RCO said:


> the tab no deposit bottle and olive jar/bottle , didn't get a picture of it with the olives but there still was olives in it when found
> 
> View attachment 173882View attachment 173883


Hey RCO  very cool to find it full w olives. I found a canning jar one summer day packed w blueberries or something like. I said this is cool I will bring it home to show my wife. Left it on the porch in the sun and thats where I forgot about it until I said "What the He** is that Smell", I cant quite describe it but it was a nasty smelling mess. The top blew off from the pressure trapped inside, nasty.
 Have you checked on the river that runs to the lake from Bracebridge? Just looking at the maps it seems like a spot I would check out if I lived out there.


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## RCO

coldwater diver said:


> Hey RCO  very cool to find it full w olives. I found a canning jar one summer day packed w blueberries or something like. I said this is cool I will bring it home to show my wife. Left it on the porch in the sun and thats where I forgot about it until I said "What the He** is that Smell", I cant quite describe it but it was a nasty smelling mess. The top blew off from the pressure trapped inside, nasty.
> Have you checked on the river that runs to the lake from Bracebridge? Just looking at the maps it seems like a spot I would check out if I lived out there.




I was thinking it start to smell if I left them in and put it in trunk of car , so I just tossed them in the bush , they actually didn't even look that bad considering how long they had likely been there . 

no I've never really checked that part of the river , there is 2 public parks that feature small waterfalls just north of bracebridge . swan at one once but didn't find anything there . there isn't a lot of public access on that part of the river , mostly private homes and land along it . is a large park rate near downtown bracebridge , some kids go swimming there and old steamboats used to stop there , I'm sure there is bottles there but location where its likely they are is too deep for me to just swim to . bracebridge also used to be much more industrial than it is today , was 2 large leather tanneries not far from town along the river , really don't want to know what you'd find from them .


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## offtrail

May not be old bottles but it's old enough to make it fun.


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## CanadianBottles

I doubt that you'd run in to any health risks from 19th century tanneries.  Unless it's something like a lead smelter I wouldn't be too concerned with remnants of 19th century industry.  Speaking of which, have you ever gone looking for 19th century dumps around Bracebridge or the similar towns around there?  It's remote enough that serious diggers may have never made it up that way and undeveloped enough that the town dump may still be accessible.  To me that's the first thing I'd be focusing on, I've never lived close enough to a town like that to spend a lot of time looking for the dump but I've seen other diggers have great results from towns that size.


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## RCO

CanadianBottles said:


> I doubt that you'd run in to any health risks from 19th century tanneries.  Unless it's something like a lead smelter I wouldn't be too concerned with remnants of 19th century industry.  Speaking of which, have you ever gone looking for 19th century dumps around Bracebridge or the similar towns around there?  It's remote enough that serious diggers may have never made it up that way and undeveloped enough that the town dump may still be accessible.  To me that's the first thing I'd be focusing on, I've never lived close enough to a town like that to spend a lot of time looking for the dump but I've seen other diggers have great results from towns that size.



the only dumps I've found were at small farms which had been abandoned by now and grown in with tree's , I've never like found an actual town dump , there is semi modern now closed maybe 50 era dumps outside of both Huntsville and bracebridge but I doubt the town would ever allow someone to dig them up . as to where the original 19th centrury dumps would be ? is a mystery , back at the turn of the century all the tree's here were cut down and logged so an area that might of been empty back then could now be fully forested or a swamp/wetland type area


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## RCO

some bottles I found on a recent swim at main location - 8 brown's , 4 coca cola -oldest 36 , 2 pepsi , 1 patio diet cola , 1 old green bottle , 1 stubby , 1 orange crush , 2 kist , 1 diet rite cola , 1 7 up ndnr , 1 whiskey , 1 medical bottle


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## RCO

the glass on orange crush in good condition , however the front label has mostly faded apart , also found an odd older light green bottle , no real markings on it


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## CanadianBottles

RCO said:


> the only dumps I've found were at small farms which had been abandoned by now and grown in with tree's , I've never like found an actual town dump , there is semi modern now closed maybe 50 era dumps outside of both Huntsville and bracebridge but I doubt the town would ever allow someone to dig them up . as to where the original 19th centrury dumps would be ? is a mystery , back at the turn of the century all the tree's here were cut down and logged so an area that might of been empty back then could now be fully forested or a swamp/wetland type area



Do you have any libraries or archives around there that have old newspapers on microfilm?  If you have access to old copies of newspapers from the early 20th century from the area then those will often have information about where the old dumps were located, although microfilm is very time-consuming.  If not, you can make some assumptions based on the geography of the area.  Dumps were usually located close enough to downtown that a horse and buggy could reach them easily, and were located on land that didn't otherwise have any use.  Swamps and riverbanks were a prime location, as well as old quarries or sometimes just lots in areas with cheap real estate.  They were often located near rail yards too, I find.  In theory they should have been located downwind and downstream of the city, but in reality they could have been located anywhere.  

For Huntsville, likely spots to me would be the railroad along Dufferin, Mountview Avenue, or the forest between Main and Florence.  It also could have just been a random spot in the woods close to town.  
For Bracebridge, the area between River and Hiram looks like it has potential, as well as the woods between John and Valley.
For Gravenhurst, I feel like it should be somewhere near the railroad, maybe around John Street?  
One good way to find dumps is to walk along the riverbank through town, that's where it's easiest to find exposed stuff.  Since the Muskoka area is very rocky, one way you can safely rule out an area being a town dump is if there are exposed rocks.  That should narrow things down somewhat.  And yes it'll be fully forested now.  It likely won't be a swamp, but it could very well be on the edge of a swamp that used to be bigger and was partially filled in.


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## RCO

there are a lot of local history books for this area , just about every small town has its own book , I have a number of them by now , I haven't seen anything about any dumps mentioned in them . the library in Huntsville does have old newspapers on microfilm , I have looked at some before from the 20's they were very interesting to read . 

I'm not sure about some of those locations , do think for Huntsville the railway area is an option but mountview is site of sewage treatment plant now and old pics just show a farm there . although its likely some trash was dumped in the river there . is a lot of possible locations as back then would of been a lot of empty lots/old farms and wooded areas near town.


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## CanadianBottles

Old pics can be really deceptive when it comes to dumps, I've never seen an old picture which clearly shows a dump.  Dumps don't really look like anything in old pictures, they just look the same as dirt from far away.  But a farm does suggest that there probably wasn't a major dump there.  I'm thinking the rail yards are even more likely then.  Rail yards very frequently had dumps under them because there wasn't much else you could do with the land since you couldn't build on it.  

If you ever have some spare days with nothing to do, I can almost guarantee that you can find information about where the dumps are in the pre-1920 newspapers.  It'll just take a really long time, but it could be worth it.  Or you might find out it's in an area you aren't allowed to dig and it'll be a waste of time.  It can go either way.  I wouldn't expect you to find anything in the history books, no one other than bottle collectors cares about old dumps.

One way to narrow down locations is to remember that when dumping trash, they didn't like to make trash mountains like they do now.  So they generally only dumped in low-lying areas which could be made flat.  This means into rivers, swamps, quarries, or any other low-lying area.  If you're walking around checking places out, you can also more or less cross a place off if you see bedrock sticking up through the dirt.  Since your area appears to have a lot of rocks, that should be helpful in eliminating spots.


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## RCO

CanadianBottles said:


> Old pics can be really deceptive when it comes to dumps, I've never seen an old picture which clearly shows a dump.  Dumps don't really look like anything in old pictures, they just look the same as dirt from far away.  But a farm does suggest that there probably wasn't a major dump there.  I'm thinking the rail yards are even more likely then.  Rail yards very frequently had dumps under them because there wasn't much else you could do with the land since you couldn't build on it.
> 
> If you ever have some spare days with nothing to do, I can almost guarantee that you can find information about where the dumps are in the pre-1920 newspapers.  It'll just take a really long time, but it could be worth it.  Or you might find out it's in an area you aren't allowed to dig and it'll be a waste of time.  It can go either way.  I wouldn't expect you to find anything in the history books, no one other than bottle collectors cares about old dumps.
> 
> One way to narrow down locations is to remember that when dumping trash, they didn't like to make trash mountains like they do now.  So they generally only dumped in low-lying areas which could be made flat.  This means into rivers, swamps, quarries, or any other low-lying area.  If you're walking around checking places out, you can also more or less cross a place off if you see bedrock sticking up through the dirt.  Since your area appears to have a lot of rocks, that should be helpful in eliminating spots.



the area around downtown Huntsville has changed a lot over the years , its very likely there was some dumping around the rail yards . I've found some broken bottles and trash in that area before but nothing large enough to be a dump . there also used to be a large sawmill at the end of hunters bay near river and beside it was a very large leather tannery till the 50's  , not sure if there would of been room for a dump there 

there was also a large swamp beside the downtown years ago , the area which is now Cann street plaza used to be a wetland and swamp until they built a plaza there , if anything was dumped there its certainly lost by now


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## RCO

more on Huntsville , parents had mentioned they saw an old 1926 book about Huntsville in a thrift store silent auction , I wasn't really sure what they were talking about as I had never heard of such a book . went to look at it and it appears to be a souvenir book published in 1926 as part of "old home week " which was not about old homes in town but rather a way to get people who had moved away or tourists to come to town . a lot of information about the town in it , old businesses, hotels , school and famous people . it be interesting to see what it goes for , I'd like to acquire it but not going to pay something crazy . 

 nothing about the dump but was a neat aerial picture of the town from 1925 taken from hunters bay looking in ( not the normal views which were taken from lookout looking down on the town ) , tough to tell from pic where any dumps might of been , it looked pretty clean in some of the railway areas in that part of town but the lake was more industrial and you could see logs and such along shore waiting to go to mills ,


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## RCO

went back to take another look at the book , got a picture of the picture from air of Huntsville 1925 . 
some things I can identify from the picture 
- rail lines remain in the same location in 1925 as today 
- core of the downtown was built up back then as it is today 
- some areas that were small farms are now homes or small subdivisions , like area to north of hunters bay .
- also not many large trees in this picture when compared to today , most of the large trees had been cut down earlier 
- can see logs being stored in the lake and evidence of logging


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## CanadianBottles

Yeah the Cann plaza area looks like a likely spot for an old dump, shame that it's all been built up.  I'm not sure how big a dump a town that size would produce, so I'm not sure what you should be looking for exactly.  From that aerial photo I don't get the sense that the rail yard was used as a dump in that era, but it could have been earlier.  It looks like the shore in the right foreground could be a dump, hard to tell with that resolution.  From the air, dumps tend to have an ashy look in black and white.  Have you ever kayaked around that area?  The bottles would likely be a bit modern though, if it was still in use in 1925, except for milks and sodas.  Really the best way to find dumps is to just walk around in every bit of forested area you can find near the centre of town.  That's how I found all the spots I frequent, I found a lot of locations through research but none of them were places that I could actually dig or had anything on the surface.


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## RCO

( this article talks about old dumps in the area , it says there is over 109 known waste disposal sites in the region , 35 on district land and 74 on private property . these aren't likely very old dumps and mostly from 50's- 70's era , they mention one in Huntsville on ravenscliffe road which is behind the fairgrounds , I'm thinking its a fairly modern dump that would of been used in 50's- 70's and closed when new Huntsville dump opened but I'm really not sure when it opened )



May 20, 2016                                   |                      Vote          0                                        0                  *Old landfill reviews underway to aid development in Muskoka*





*CHAFFEY LANDFILL*

File Photo_Chaffey Landfill, a closed dump off Ravenscliffe Road in Huntsville, is one of two waste management sites on the province's environmental protection radar._




*SIDEBAR*

*District-controlled waste disposal sites in need of D4 assessments:*
Town/Township Number of Sites
Township of Muskoka Lakes – 11
Town of Bracebridge – 3
Town of Gravenhurst – 3
Town of Huntsville – 3
Township of Lake of Bays – 2
Township of Georgian Bay – 2
Total: 24
_*Source: District of Muskoka Engineering and Public Works Department_



Huntsville Forester                  By             Alison Brownlee 
                            MUSKOKA – Some of the region’s buried secrets are now under the microscope.                         
                            The District of Muskoka has prioritized assessments of 24 closed landfills across the region and plans to start half of those assessments this spring. The assessments are needed before development can happen on properties near the landfills, as per the province’s guideline D4, which controls land use on or near landfills and dumps. 
http://www.muskokaregion.com/news-s...views-underway-to-aid-development-in-muskoka/


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## RCO

( this article indicates the chaffey landfill was being used from 1940's till 80's for huntsville's trash but mystery is where was the garbage going pre 1940's ?  ) 


Nov 14, 2013                                   |                      Vote	 	 0       							     0                  [h=1]Report on old Chaffey Landfill shows seeps[/h][h=2]Closed dump affecting neighbouring wetland[/h]
Huntsville Forester                  By             Alison Brownlee   
                            HUNTSVILLE – A landfill site in Huntsville closed more than three decades ago is back in the spotlight.
 Kelly Pender, chief administrative officer for the Town of Huntsville, said the Ministry of the Environment has asked for an abatement plan for the old Chaffey Landfill site near the Huntsville fairgrounds off Ravenscliffe Road.
“The abatement plan looks at what work needs to be done to ensure that the garbage is contained,” said Pender.
 The landfill, according to a staff report, was operational from the 1940s to the early 1980s.
“There was a closure plan done for it, but it was never filed, for some reason,” said Pender.

http://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/4208111-report-on-old-chaffey-landfill-shows-seeps/


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## RCO

I figured out where the Huntsville dump was , this article seems to indicate the dump was the swamp near the downtown known now as brendale square plaza , it would be impossible to dig there as its all paved over now  
Garbage disposal in the
’30s was considered
a personal matter, and a
community which provided
a site for this purpose
had fulfilled its function.
Huntsville gave this
provision prime consideration,
for its dump was
located on Main Street at
John Street in the area
affectionately known as
“The Swamp.” The site,
later occupied by the A&P
Plaza, with the exception
of the corner of Union
Garage and the future
Brendale Square, was a vast
sea of rushes and weeds.




http://media.cottagecountrynow.ca/special/muskokasun/data/pdfs/42/A18.pdf


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## RCO

just found this mini quart milk jug when swimming the other day , wasn't sure where it was from but after some research its local to this area and from a small dairy in Milford Bay Ontario - Brooklands Dairy , too bad its broken


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## CanadianBottles

Hmm yeah that's definitely not somewhere that you can dig, at least not unless they ever decide to redevelop that area.  Which could happen, around here they're starting to knock down those old mid-century plazas and build condos on them.  Not that I'd expect anyone to build condos in Huntsville, but it does seem like those properties are starting to near the end of their useful lives.

Do you know when the dam at the locks was installed?  Because the 1930's is a bit late for dump digging, so there may be an older dump somewhere else.


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## RCO

CanadianBottles said:


> Hmm yeah that's definitely not somewhere that you can dig, at least not unless they ever decide to redevelop that area.  Which could happen, around here they're starting to knock down those old mid-century plazas and build condos on them.  Not that I'd expect anyone to build condos in Huntsville, but it does seem like those properties are starting to near the end of their useful lives.
> 
> Do you know when the dam at the locks was installed?  Because the 1930's is a bit late for dump digging, so there may be an older dump somewhere else.



it sounds like that dump was used earlier than the 30's , that swamp lot would of been empty for a while and likely used for dumping going back to early days of town . 

there has been a dam at the locks for a while , the locks have been there since at least early 1900's , is postcards of boats there from that time period 


do agree that lot isn't going to be dug anytime soon , although it could be redeveloped at some point , most of the stores in that plaza are empty . beer store left for a new location , lcbo left a couple years ago and the dollarama moved to mall 2 years ago , think only business still open in first plaza is a Chinese restaurant . the second brendale square plaza is more full though with a home hardware and fresh co . 
there are actually a number of smaller condo's around muskoka , haven't been as many built last couple years but was a bit of a building boom maybe 5-10 years ago a few smaller condo's were built is a couple along the river maybe 5 stories high near the centre street bridge in Huntsville , I could see a condo going on that lot but be a disaster to build due to that lot and whats likely down there and history of flooding on that property , it floods most springs that lot


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## RCO

found a picture of one of them , this build and one identical beside it were built along the muskoka river in  town maybe 15 years ago . is also a large number of condo's on the deerhurst resort property.  been a couple other condo's built in town as well , one further up centre street near the home depot , think there mostly aiming for retiree's from Toronto to move up here and into them


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## RCO

couple bottles I found swimming this weekend near a park , 2 coca cola's from 50's , 2 mepp's fishing lures , broken London gin bottle and a broken JD brown bottle .


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## RCO

the JD browns bottle is very unusual , haven't found it before , its clear and has similar embossing to other JD brown bottles. but its for a very small bottle , not sure what product went in it , not aware of them doing a juice type drink but it be very small for pop  ? 

found a picture of what a complete bottle looks like online , don't recall seeing one for sale anywhere before .


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## mctaggart67

The small J.D. Brown is known as a split, a term imported from the wine industry for a bottle of such a relatively small volume (basically a quarter of a standard wine bottle/imperial pint bottle). They were used to supply bars, restaurants and even trains, in which smaller servings of pop were called for. Your Brown split is a tough bottle to find in that condition and is, I think, the hardest Brown, Gravenhurst bottle style to find. Good on you!


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## RCO

mctaggart67 said:


> The small J.D. Brown is known as a split, a term imported from the wine industry for a bottle of such a relatively small volume (basically a quarter of a standard wine bottle/imperial pint bottle). They were used to supply bars, restaurants and even trains, in which smaller servings of pop were called for. Your Brown split is a tough bottle to find in that condition and is, I think, the hardest Brown, Gravenhurst bottle style to find. Good on you!



that is some useful information , I haven't seen or found one of these bottles before . I only found the broken shard of one yesterday when swimming , the complete one was posted by another collector from gravenhurst to this site a while back . it wouldn't surprise me that it is one of the harder  JD brown bottles to find as I can't recall even seeing one before


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## mctaggart67

No probs. Ontario splits, in general, are hard to find, though J. Tune & Sons, London, and Pilgrim Bros., Hamilton, seem to show up regularly.


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## CanadianBottles

That's a shame the split is broken, that would have been a great bottle to find intact.  I don't know of any splits from Eastern Ontario, although there's a weird bottle from I think Clarence Creek that looks more or less like a gigantic split.
I've only got one split in my collection, a Cummer & Son from Hamilton with the embossed eagle.  I've never seen another one like it, I found it in a tiny antique shop in Montreal and from the price tag it looked like it had been hiding at the back of that shelf for a decade or more.


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## mctaggart67

There's a Stimson & Eamer, Cornwall, split.


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## CreekWalker

Interesting finds! JD stands for Jack Daniel in , here in Tennessee. Great post , thanks.


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## CanadianBottles

mctaggart67 said:


> There's a Stimson & Eamer, Cornwall, split.



Oh I'll definitely have to look out for that one then!  I don't have any soda bottles of much age from that area, I see deco-era soda bottles from along the St Lawrence up here but never anything earlier.


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## RCO

the swim season here appears to be coming to an end , been much cooler this week and almost no people at beaches if you drive by  , anyways some bottles I found a few days ago along a river/dock area .

nothing to exciting , 2 1941 coca cola's , a brown's bev 10 oz , 2 green beer bottles and a jar


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## RCO

appear to have missed out on the 1926 Huntsville book which was part of last months thrift store auction , I was the leading bidder at $25 most of the month then someone out bid me and I bid a bit more but someone else must of bid at the end of month cause I didn't hear back from store saying I had won . I really don't know what it was worth but didn't feel it was worth much more than $30 in condition it was in


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## RCO

went swimming in September , some bottles I found near a dock near a location where I had checked before , normally check other docks but it was nice out a couple days ago and checked a set I hadn't been to before . didn't really find anything that old , mostly a lot of clear brown's bottles , some coca cola , pepsi , a Schweppes tonic water , nesbitt's of California ( American version bottle ) , some no deposit's , modern beer bottles and Snapple bottles and a jar


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## RCO

the nesbitt's bottle isn't in good condition , what I found odd about it , was it appears to be an American bottle as marking on bottom from duraglas and faded acl not Canadian and doesn't show Ottawa bottler like other nesbitt's bottles I've seen 

the white paint is badly faded on the schweepes , its a tonic water bottle and what I found odd as it says its a no deposit no return bottle , looks like an odd bottle to be no return ?


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