# Old Oak Cliff Dump In Dallas



## Echosyn (Jun 15, 2013)

Hello good folks. I'm new here and to old bottles. Posting to announce that I have found the original Oak Cliff dump in southwest Dallas, Texas. It is overgrown with brush and a forest. The dump layers range from 2 to 6 feet deep and cover about 8 acres. The site is red-lined from development. In 20 minutes I can fill a 5 gallon bucket with intact general consumer products glass containers and house wares that range in date from the 1890s to about 1954. I've cleaned a few choice ones for home decor and wonder if there is value worth pursuing in that dig. Suggestions are welcome.


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## hemihampton (Jun 16, 2013)

Don't know about Bottles but I know some older Beer cans found in Texas like Southern Select, Travis, Rosalie, ect, ect can be worth $1,000 in good but rusty condition. If you seen any old beer cans in that dump let me know? THANKS, LEON. 


 P.S. Can you post a pic of what you found?


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## deenodean (Jun 16, 2013)

Welcome to the site. Pictures posted will tell the story. Bottles from the 1890's are desirable. You might even find what we call ' late throws' where people from the late 1800's threw away a dust collector made decades earlier.


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## nhpharm (Jun 16, 2013)

For sure...good Texas dumps are hard to find and if it goes back to the 1890's you can find some good stuff for sure.


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## jays emporium (Jun 17, 2013)

Please post some pictures of some of the older bottles and we can tell you if they are any good.  I have been digging in Texas for 45 years.
 Jay


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## Echosyn (Jun 18, 2013)

There are no beer cans or light ferrous  (tin) containers, just things that don't corrode and the embedding dirt looks to be 60% rust from tin things that were. Have to get the iPhoto settings in line then I will upload the 3 photos I have in the 'puter. A creek slices through the dig so I check the banks after each heavy rain and do low labor digging out of the exposed glass, copper and brass items. From May through October the area is densely forested and owned by poison ivy. Texas summer is hell so I dig away from the creek in December through April. I stumbled upon the site in 1987 while doing botanical and ecological study. The old glass spurred me to dig and check out a half dozen public library old bottle books. Then over the years i occasionally dug, cleaned and sold a few at yard sales. No one else has been digging the bottles. My best find was a 20" tall embossed Puerto Rican rum bottle commemorating a WWII event.


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## Echosyn (Jun 18, 2013)

If this uploads successfully it is one creek bank pocket where I filled the bucket in less than 10 minutes. Pay special attention to the tool I use. It is a WWI entrenching tool that is perfect for bottle digging.


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## Echosyn (Jun 18, 2013)

It's slow work in gnarly roots. Three poison bottles came out of this area.


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## Echosyn (Jun 18, 2013)

These are exemplary of the usual fare. A surprisingly large number have the Bakelite caps or stoppers intact. The blue Philips Milk of Magnesia are in four sizes and the sets sell quickly. When I was knee-high to a grasshopper in the late 50s every boy had marbles and many of those marbles are in this dump.


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## hemihampton (Jun 18, 2013)

Have you found any older blob top beer bottles? LEON.


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## jays emporium (Jun 18, 2013)

Your dump looks like a fun place to dig, lots of whole bottles.  The bottles you show look to be 1940s-50s, except the embossed Phillips might be 1930s.  Could you photograph some you think are before 1900?  Are you finding any embossed soda bottles like Dr Pepper, Coca Cola or maybe some from local bottling companies in the Dallas area?  You probably find a lot of small prescription medicine bottles with graduations on the edge, both cork top and screw top.  Have you found any embossed drug store bottles from Dallas or Ft Worth or other towns?  Embossed bottles from Texas would probably be the best bottles you are likely to find in that site.  I know what you mean about the rust.  Steel beer cans under ground don't last more than about 20 years in the Texas soil.  In some environments in other states they survive longer.
 The digging tools I typically use are a 4 prong potato rake with cut off handle for digging in the bottle layer, a army shovel bent at 90 degrees for throwing dirt out of the hole and a potato fork for caving in the overburden.
 Jay


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## texasdigger (Jun 18, 2013)

I have dug in this particular dump since the early 1980's.  It is an o.k. dump, but I do not think it goes into the 1890's.  I have never seen one hutch dug from it, and a lot of it is burned.  The dump has been heavily dug since the 60's.  Dig deep, and it gives up some treasures from time to time, but most bottles are clunkers.  Good luck, and make sure to use a screen.  Some great gold items have been dug from this dump.

 Brad


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## Echosyn (Jun 19, 2013)

Thank you for that revelation, Texas Digger. My guess-timations were based on this tyro's gleanings from the books and what I found: two blob tops and a pontil.  Some folks hang onto things and finally toss them. That Adams Branch creek empties into Five Mile Creek that surely tucks the heavy stuff like precious metals. I've pondered wading Five Mile Creek while applying some old fashioned forensic science. Last month I blazed, reopened, two trails into the area from the dead end of Conway. Haven't been below the waterfall yet. Herbalism being a necessary interest for my health needs, The dark glass bottles have been perfect for storing the homemade formulas, so personal profit from bottle sales has no appeal. Going straight north from Conway into the trees one can easily trip over roots that extend for dozens of feet just above ground like taught cables. Strange indeed and my next project.


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## digger dun (Jun 19, 2013)

Let's see some pics of those two blobs, and that pontil!


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## Echosyn (Jun 19, 2013)

That was 20+ years ago in the Canon SLR age when photography was pricey, my budget was tight and I had no reason to take pics.


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