# Almost gave up and found a pre pro Detroit beer bottle



## woods_walker (Nov 22, 2019)

Hey guys first post here.
Thought my digging days were over for the year as it gets pretty cold and snowy here in northern Michigan this time of year. With a little bit of warmer temps and melting snow I decided to go dig some bottles after work. I went to my usual spot which is tough digging (shallow dump and lots of cedar roots).  I Powered threw my hole I filled in last time I was there and moved over some to the left a few feet and went about 2 feet down where I’ve found some older beers before. After a little while of not finding anything I gave up and walked over to one of my other spots only to find they were still covered in snow... Thought about heading home at that point but something told me to go back and try some more. I got back to my hole and about 5 minutes later I found my first bottle a machine made green slick beer. So I kept scratching around next to it and caught a glimpse of an aqua bottle. This is where I got excited and I thought I may have finally found a version of a local beer bottle I’ve been hunting for. I started digging around it and out popped an early machine made brown beer with no embossing. I set it aside and kept diggin until I was able to pull the aqua bottle out of the hole. Right away a noticed a small chip on the lip and a slight crack running down the neck but it was a whole bottle with embossing so I was happy. It turned out to be a machine made pre prohibition Detroit beer with the words Goebel’s Detroit registered on it. It also had a big G embossed in the middle of the slug plate. First time finding this bottle for me after that I dug around a little more and decided to call it quits as it was starting to get dark now. I headed home and cleaned it up and it turned out to be a pretty nice bottle to display next to my other beer and soda bottles!


Hope you guys enjoyed this story and I didn’t go into to much detail. I would like to share some more stories in the future.


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## shotdwn (Nov 22, 2019)

Great story. Keep them coming.


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## RoyalRuby (Nov 22, 2019)

Well done.....


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## embe (Nov 22, 2019)

Nice one to get in hand before the weather turns!


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## WesternPA-collector (Nov 22, 2019)

Very nice story. That's part of the fun of going out and finding bottles rather than buying them.


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## photolith (Nov 22, 2019)

I actually find digging in the early winter is easier, as all the vegetation is dead so its easier to see stuff along creeks and dumps, etc. Great bottle by the way. Middle of the winter though its almost impossible to dig as the upper dirt layers are usually frozen.


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## hemihampton (Nov 22, 2019)

Welcome to the site. Nice Story & Bottle. Me being from Detroit & Digging in the Detroit area I found those Goebels often. I'm going to go out on a limb & guess that maybe that green slick just said T.B. Co. on the bottom? Curious if it did? if so let me know & I'll tell you what that bottle is. LEON.


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## woods_walker (Nov 23, 2019)

Thank you, the green bottle was left at the dump and I don’t recall seeing anything on it. I kept the Brown slick it’s a unique shape, kinda squat shaped I guess you could say little bubbles in the glass to!


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## woods_walker (Nov 23, 2019)

shotdwn said:


> Great story. Keep them coming.



Thanks, I’ll try!


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## woods_walker (Nov 23, 2019)

photolith said:


> I actually find digging in the early winter is easier, as all the vegetation is dead so its easier to see stuff along creeks and dumps, etc. Great bottle by the way. Middle of the winter though its almost impossible to dig as the upper dirt layers are usually frozen.



Thanks! It wasn’t bad digging and the colder air definitely allows you to dig longer with out getting so hot! But your right about the frozen ground you can forget about digging then lol


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## woods_walker (Nov 23, 2019)

WesternPA-collector said:


> Very nice story. That's part of the fun of going out and finding bottles rather than buying them.



Thank you. You got that right buddy!


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## GLASSHOPPER55 (Nov 23, 2019)

Welcome from Michigan City, Indiana!

Cool Pre-Pro beer!


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## BF109 (Nov 27, 2019)

Nice find, looks good!


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## NBM (Nov 27, 2019)

Nice find.  Goebel had a brewery in Detroit as early as 1886, and as late as 1971.


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## Relicdigger16 (Dec 26, 2019)

moltke_woods said:


> Hey guys first post here.
> Thought my digging days were over for the year as it gets pretty cold and snowy here in northern Michigan this time of year. With a little bit of warmer temps and melting snow I decided to go dig some bottles after work. I went to my usual spot which is tough digging (shallow dump and lots of cedar roots).  I Powered threw my hole I filled in last time I was there and moved over some to the left a few feet and went about 2 feet down where I’ve found some older beers before. After a little while of not finding anything I gave up and walked over to one of my other spots only to find they were still covered in snow... Thought about heading home at that point but something told me to go back and try some more. I got back to my hole and about 5 minutes later I found my first bottle a machine made green slick beer. So I kept scratching around next to it and caught a glimpse of an aqua bottle. This is where I got excited and I thought I may have finally found a version of a local beer bottle I’ve been hunting for. I started digging around it and out popped an early machine made brown beer with no embossing. I set it aside and kept diggin until I was able to pull the aqua bottle out of the hole. Right away a noticed a small chip on the lip and a slight crack running down the neck but it was a whole bottle with embossing so I was happy. It turned out to be a machine made pre prohibition Detroit beer with the words Goebel’s Detroit registered on it. It also had a big G embossed in the middle of the slug plate. First time finding this bottle for me after that I dug around a little more and decided to call it quits as it was starting to get dark now. I headed home and cleaned it up and it turned out to be a pretty nice bottle to display next to my other beer and soda bottles!
> 
> 
> Hope you guys enjoyed this story and I didn’t go into to much detail. I would like to share some more stories in the future.


nice looking bottle


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