# A few smaller dumps I've discovered



## BottleDragon (Nov 17, 2018)

When I'm not digging at my main dump I'm on the lookout for other ones -- preferably older than 1940's, but I will dig anything up to 1950's or so. I just wanted to document some of them, starting with the most recent.

Nov 13: Discovered a farm dump alongside a stream in Surrey, BC.






Here's some of what I found...







Other than the poison bottle, it seems like the best stuff was broken, unfortunately. The two broken soda bottles in the last image are a Bireley's and "The Lions", which is a local bottle. 

Anyway, here are the ones I took home and cleaned up:



Note: the little bottle on the left is a Hires root beer extract.

There may still be some stuff here, so I might return someday.

Thanks for looking.


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## CanadianBottles (Nov 18, 2018)

That's a shame about the Lions bottle, that's one of my favourite BC sodas.  Nice save on the Iodine bottle though!


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## RCO (Nov 18, 2018)

the Lion's bottle has been previously discussed on this site , I remembered seeing it before , pretty sure its a desirable bottle , the post seems to think its from the 30's-40's and company disappeared by 1950's . too bad its broken but still a neat find 

https://www.antique-bottles.net/sho...30s-The-Lions-soda-bottle&p=666221#post666221


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## BottleDragon (Nov 18, 2018)

I'd heard of The Lions before, but this was the first time I'd seen an example in the wild. In fact, I've never seen that particular bottle anywhere except on this site. I'm guessing it's quite rare?

Almost makes me want to go back and tear that place apart. But I know the odds of finding another (and it being intact) are slim to none.


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## RCO (Nov 18, 2018)

BottleDragon said:


> I'd heard of The Lions before, but this was the first time I'd seen an example in the wild. In fact, I've never seen that particular bottle anywhere except on this site. I'm guessing it's quite rare?
> 
> Almost makes me want to go back and tear that place apart. But I know the odds of finding another (and it being intact) are slim to none.



I'm not sure if its that rare but definitely desirable , pretty sure it was one of the larger Vancouver bottlers , in theory you'd have a chance of uncovering one in any dump there from that time period 


I've only seen it on this site as well but western Canada bottles don't show up at bottle shows  or antique malls here much


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## CanadianBottles (Nov 18, 2018)

It's a fairly uncommon one as far as BC sodas from that era go.  I don't remember seeing them much if ever when I lived out there, apart from my own.  I don't think they were a very big bottler even though they lasted for a while, their ACLs seem even less common and I've only seen one or two examples of their seltzer siphons online.  The embossed ones are the most common ones to find, and although they're hard to find I certainly wouldn't say the chances of finding another are slim to none.


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## BottleDragon (Nov 18, 2018)

Okay, thanks for the info. I will definitely go back there and look around some more, since I was thinking about going back anyway.


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## Screwtop (Nov 19, 2018)

Any dump is a good dump in my opinion. I haven't found zilch in three years since I moved here. Nice bottles! It makes me wish that I kept some of the ones I found last year.


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## RCO (Nov 19, 2018)

have a lot of similar art deco soda's from Ontario in my collection , always had a tough time determining rarity of certain bottles .

the criteria I personally use , would be - length of time the bottler operated , size of city / geographical area they served , number of times I have seen the bottle in the past 

example a bottle from a small town , that only operated for a couple years and that I have never seen before is most likely rare to find 

not sure the Lion's bottle would fit my criteria for being rare as it operated for some time in a very large city and its appeared online a few times over the years 

that being said its still a very desirable bottle to have as it features a view of the mountains on one side , not something you'd see on any other bottles and that makes it unique , if I were to see one at an antique store I'd buy it but I've never seen one for sale here


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## CanadianBottles (Nov 19, 2018)

Yeah rarity can be a hard one to figure out sometimes.  And some rarities just don't make logical sense, like this one.  You'd think it would be fairly common considering how long it operated but they just don't show up much.  It's not _rare_ rare, but it's less common than you'd think for such a long-lived bottler.  I'd be very surprised to see one of those show up in Ontario, BC stuff doesn't show up much in general and this one rarely shows up even in BC, at least not on the Island.


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## BottleDragon (Nov 20, 2018)

Nov 18: Was exploring in the same general area, about 0.5 km from the last dump. Followed a stream into a grove of cedar trees where I found several more dumps with mostly 60's and 70's junk, rusted metal, etc. But I did find this shard in the stream...











Hoping this means there's an older dump here. This looks like the sort of area that would have been used for dumping over a long period of time, given the age of the trees and the fact that the land isn't usable for anything else. The area dates to roughly the 1880's.


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## BottleDragon (Nov 24, 2018)

Any guesses on the age? 

Not much I can add. The glass has an uneven texture and there are no mold seams visible. The base is marked only with the number 557 and a "C".

I think (not sure) it has a sand pontil mark. There is some roughness, but less than I'd expect... however it was in a stream, so it could have been polished somewhat.


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## CanadianBottles (Nov 24, 2018)

I'd guess 1890s to 1930s as a date range.  Likely European.  That's not a sand pontil, it's just rough glass from the manufacturing process I'm afraid.  When I lived in BC I'd often find pieces or sometimes whole examples of that sort of bottle sitting somewhere in the woods with nothing else around, probably after some logger finished it 100 years ago.  I'd always search around for signs of something else but rarely would there be anything, and if there was it would just be a few items, almost always more broken European alcohol bottles with no sign of anything local.  These loggers seemed to be pretty consistent in not drinking beer that came in interesting bottles.


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## BottleDragon (Nov 24, 2018)

I suspected it might be European... I know that certain bottles over there were made with the older techniques later than in NA, which might account for the crudeness. It felt like there was some sand embedded in the glass, but it might be just stuck in the rough areas due to laying in the stream for so long.

Well, this area was logged mainly in the 1880's... so this particular bottle is probably not from a logger. I suspect it was more likely a homesteader, which means there still could be a dump in the area... though finding it may prove a challenge.


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## RCO (Nov 24, 2018)

CanadianBottles said:


> I'd guess 1890s to 1930s as a date range.  Likely European.  That's not a sand pontil, it's just rough glass from the manufacturing process I'm afraid.  When I lived in BC I'd often find pieces or sometimes whole examples of that sort of bottle sitting somewhere in the woods with nothing else around, probably after some logger finished it 100 years ago.  I'd always search around for signs of something else but rarely would there be anything, and if there was it would just be a few items, almost always more broken European alcohol bottles with no sign of anything local.  These loggers seemed to be pretty consistent in not drinking beer that came in interesting bottles.




I recall reading about this in a local history book , how loggers would leave behind green wine bottles and such in the middle of the forest , seems like an odd thing to do now but back in the days seems to have happened a fair bit . people weren't worried about littering and was no reason to bring an empty bottle back with them


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## Warf rat (Dec 2, 2018)

Excellent


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## BottleDragon (Feb 26, 2019)

I was out following some leads on Sunday and I located a town dump that dates back to 1922. I poked around a bit and dug a couple feet down, but didn't find much more than 1960's shards. I found some broken NDNR sodas: two 7-Ups and one intact slick that I left behind, and a couple of broken ACL's (Coke and Fanta). The only other intact bottle I found was a small corktop pill bottle (TCW Co Type 1)

I've spent several months trying to find the exact location of this dump, so I was quite discouraged. I have no idea how deep I will have to dig to find anything good. The dump is probably 15-20 feet deep at the highest point. I didn't take any pics, but here are some Google images...

View approaching...



View of dump from side of road (note the "No Dumping" sign - lol)


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## CanadianBottles (Feb 26, 2019)

Hmm tough to say if it's worth digging there or not.  Usually the oldest part will be closest to the road.  I personally wouldn't be digging deep to find a 1930s dump, the number of worthwhile bottles in that era usually doesn't justify the effort.  Even for a municipal dump, you're looking at a ratio of maybe 1 in 20 bottles being worth keeping after the 1920s.  If you actually have an idea of where the 20s section would be it could be worth it, since the BIM era was still going strong in Canada at that time.  That said, my experience with dumps that started in the 20s and continued until the 60s is that the 20s part is difficult if not impossible to find while the 50s/60s section is massive.


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## BottleDragon (Feb 26, 2019)

Yeah, that's pretty much my thoughts. There was lots of evidence of 60's stuff and not much else, including on the fill wall beside the road.

 What I do know is that this road didn't exist in 1922, at least not in its present form. The dump was on someone's property and the access was from another street. The path to the dump would likely have terminated before the "dip" in the photo, so the grassy rise would probably be the front edge. Obviously I can't dig in that manicured area, but there is a spot just inside the treeline that looks kind of promising. 

I had some trouble digging because the ground was partially frozen, so I'll have to go back when things warm up a little.


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