# Bottle hunting in Guam



## daven2nl (Jan 17, 2013)

I live in Guam and have been a long time lurker/seldom poster here in these forums.  I'm a WW2 enthusiast and do a lot of exploring in the jungle.  I enjoy getting off the beaten path and to search for WW2 history away from the tourist type destinations.  After 60+ years in the jungle, not much is left except for bottles.  That's what ultimately led me to this forum.  I wanted to share what it is like to go exploring for bottles here on Guam.

 For some background, Guam is a tropical island in Micronesia, with year-around temperatures in the upper 80s and low 90s.  We get two seasons - a winter dry season and summer wet season.  This time of year - January/February - is nice because of lower humidity and drier conditions.  Guam has been a US possession since the Spanish-American War, and about 15,000 people lived here in 1941, mostly local Chamorro with a few Americans, including a small Marine detachment.  Shortly after December 7th, Guam was invaded and occupied by Japanese forces.  In July, 1944, American forces began liberating the island from the Japanese.  When the battle was over, more than 1,200 US and nearly 17,000 of an estimated 18,000 Japanese defenders would die.  In early 1945, Guam was transformed into a huge forward supply base, with nearly 250K soldiers preparing for an invasion of Japan when the war ended.

 My interest is in WW2 history, and more specifically, I have been doing research on WW2 era Coca-Cola and Japanese bottles.  I have found that there is not much information on the web about either topic, and I am in a unique position to have access to both.  Much of Northern Guam is still jungle, and I enjoy spending time researching and looking for potential WW2 sites with Google Earth, then exploring those sites to see if I can find anything.

 Today I decided to explore a site on military property, something I am able to access as an active duty member of the USCG.  Since it's federal land, collecting is not allowed, but the hunt and "catch/release" is just as much fun for me.  To get to this site, I first have to ride my bike up a jeep road to get into the vicinity.







 My gear includes a large backpack with 3-liter Camelbak (absolutely necessary due to the heat), long sleeve white shirt, a pair of military BDU pants, comfortable disposable sneakers, gloves, bug repellent, a couple towels for wiping off sweat, a compass, and my Nexus tablet.  The tablet is critical because of the built in GPS function that allows me to see where I have been and where I'm going.  Getting lost is easy when you're looking for bottles on the ground!

 After a 7 mile bike ride from my home, I get close to the site I located earlier on Google Earth.  I hide the bike in the jungle, lock it up to a large tree, and I'm off on foot, using my tablet to navigate.  It does not take long to find stuff.






 This is a large scatter of beer bottles, with a few hobbleskirts mixed in.  I have been able to determine that this area of the jungle was occupied by local Chamorro ranches before the war, and after the liberation in 1944, was used as a military bivouac site.  There are bottles scattered everywhere, the vast majority from 1944 and 1945.

 Further in the jungle, I come across a large former dump site.






 The photo does not do justice - there is stuff piled up everywhere.


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## daven2nl (Jan 17, 2013)

Looking closer...






 in this photo is a broken crock, shards from Japanese ceramic bowls, Japanese beer bottles, Maerican beer bottles, and other debris.  Everything is from the wartime era.  Japanese bottles are somewhat rare to find.  I suspect many have been kept as souvenirs by the US troops, because of the kanji embossing.  For every 100 or 1000 US bottles, I may find one or two Japanese bottles.  

 Also in this pile I found an old turn-mold bottle.  It could date back to the early 1900's, but it could just as likely be a Japanese beer bottle as their bottle making processes were not as advanced in the 30's and 40's.






 Here is a US Army Medical Services coffee mug (broken), some more Japanese ceramics, a Sea Breeze Pharmaceuticals bottle, an ink bottle (to the left of the ceramic pieces), and an old cooking pot lid.






 Rusted metal pot, US GI canteen cup (dated 1941), blue bottle (bromo seltzer?), and a Japanese kanji embossed Kirin beer bottle

 This area is absolutely covered with bottles.  Literally acres of them scattered about.  There is no digging required or even possible, the whole northern end of Guam is limestone, with only a scratching of soil over hard rock.  Everything is dated 1944 and 1945.  Thousands upon thousands of beer bottles and WW2 era hobbleskirt cokes (clear, with some greens mixed in from Oakland, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle).  Somewhat rarer are the Pepsi Cola, Nehi, and Royal Cola bottles. 











 Here is a Japanese mess bucket, carried by individual soldiers like the US GI's mess kit.  Often the name of the owner is scratched into the side in kanji.  The odds are overwhelming that the owner of this mess kit was killed in the fighting.  Of course, there are hobbleskirt cokes everywhere.


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## cowseatmaize (Jan 17, 2013)

Welcome back Dave, that's pretty cool. Does the base have an historical dept? Maybe you could get involved with that for your research if they do.


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## daven2nl (Jan 17, 2013)

After a couple hours, I'm soaked with sweat and it's ready to head back to my bike for the seven mile ride home.  Here my GPS is incredibly helpful, after looking at the ground for two hours, It would be tough otherwise to find my way back.











 Everything looks the same no matter what direction you look.  

 It can get spooky in the jungle, because it is absolutely silent except for the wind in the trees.  You may have heard of the tree snake problem on Guam; it is very real.  There are very few birds, because the snakes have eaten them all.  The jungle is crawling with snakes, but you never see them - they are nocturnal and hiding in the tree tops.  I would not want to spend a night out there alone!






 One consequence of the snakes is that the spider population has exploded.  These guys are everywhere.  Fortunately, their webs are not sticky - and evolutionary trait modified due to the wet tropical climate.  They are also harmless, but it is nice to have a towel to wipe the webs off your face when you walk into them.  It is also very unnerving to see a 3" spider like this crawling up your shirt.  Yet another reason for wearing long sleeves, pants, and gloves.

 When I get home, it is time to download the data from my GPS and see just where I was.






 The total distance I covered was just over a mile.  The lighter dots in the image are all coconut trees.  These were all planted here at some time in the past, meaning humans lived here up until the late 40's when the area was taken over as military property.  Basically, I explored only a small section of a much larger area that most likely is just as loaded with bottles.  I time capsule of sorts, abandoned 60+ years ago, aside from a few poachers over the years. (the house looking object is actually a well; there is not much civilization in the area).

 Anyway, I really enjoy reading stories from all of you... I hope you enjoyed the photos.


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## cowseatmaize (Jan 17, 2013)

> The total distance I covered was just over a mile.


+ the 14 miles of biking, don't sell the trip short. 
 If there isn't a archeological dept have you thought about one of those geo-caching clubs? []


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## daven2nl (Jan 17, 2013)

> ORIGINAL:  cowseatmaize
> 
> Welcome back Dave, that's pretty cool. Does the base have an historical dept? Maybe you could get involved with that for your research if they do.


 
 Thanks for the reply!  Actually there is a historical section, and both the Air Force and Navy have historians on the payroll.  I believe their primary focus is on the ancient Chamorro remains, several hundred to a thousand years old.  I've stumbled across old grinding stones, latte stones, and ancient pottery shards.  I absolutely do not touch that stuff at all.  In my opinion that belongs to the locals - not me.  I've exchanged emails with the National Park Service people and I think they are overwhelmed with bottles at this point.  People pick up the old coke bottles and turn them in, thinking they found something rare when they literally are everywhere if you know where to look.  The historian takes the bottle, thanks the donator, and puts it in the back room with the hundreds turned in by others.

 I try to do my part by not disturbing the sites, and not publicizing exactly where they are.  The military does historical surveys of the properties from time to time, and I would imagine they probably know a lot more sites than I've found, but just as likely don't advertise them for preservation purposes.  I have a small bottle collection, somewhat limited because I am limited in weight when I transfer.  I only collect from places where it is OK to do so - such as private properties where I've received permission from the land owner.


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## idigjars (Jan 17, 2013)

Very interesting history lesson Dave.  Thanks for sharing that with us.  Good luck on your hunt for bottles.  Paul


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## DaddyDaughterDiggers (Jan 17, 2013)

Oh heck. That spider gave me goosebumps! This is when you see me running like a bat out of hell lol


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## DaddyDaughterDiggers (Jan 17, 2013)

Great pictures Daven, love the history you shared with us. The dump you found looks great. Is it all surface glass or deeper?


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## deenodean (Jan 17, 2013)

Great story, a nice visit to the South Pacific and I did not even have to leave my house. Spiders dont freak me out but SNAKES do...glad you did not get lost and spend the nite in there...


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## botlguy (Jan 17, 2013)

Another great, interesting story, thanks. And THANK YOU for your service to our country.


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## daven2nl (Jan 17, 2013)

> ORIGINAL: DaddyDaughterDiggers
> 
> Great pictures Daven, love the history you shared with us. The dump you found looks great. Is it all surface glass or deeper?


 
 The stuff I find is all surface glass.  I know in some cases the military buried trash, but usually they dug trenches and burned it periodically, leaving it uncovered.  I suspect in this area, I'm finding bottle scatters from what used to be 55 gallon drum trash barrels, now completely rusted away, and bottles scattered over the years by pigs rooting around.  I also find random bottles around foxhole areas and the edges of old clearings - like they threw the empties into the edge of the clearings.

 I have a metal detector but one of the first times I used it, I dug up some unexploded mortar rounds.  I don't go metal detecting any more.  There is a lot of unexploded ordnance around.  I found a grenade during a previous hike not far from where I took these pictures.

 I have really been looking hard for some older bottles - from the prewar years.  The Holy Grail out here is an Agana Guam embossed coke bottle from the 30s.  As far as anyone knows, none exist in whole condition.  So far I have found nothing definitively pre-war.  I've found what looks like older bottles (turn mold style) but without any date embossing, I don't know if they are old or if they are Japanese.  I likely am walking right over old bottles, but it gets overwhelming at times when there are so many to look at.

 Supposedly there are privies out here but I have never found one.  The old pre-war structures on the ranches were all thatched huts - nothing left to use as reference to know where to look.  The actual villages were all destroyed in the war and got bulldozed flat and rebuilt.

 -Dave


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## myersdiggers1998 (Jan 17, 2013)

I hope you grabbed all those cokes.


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## daven2nl (Jan 17, 2013)

> ORIGINAL:  myersdiggers1998
> 
> I hope you grabbed all those cokes.


 
 I can't in this location, because it's federal property.  There are plenty in other places though.  I have about a dozen or so, all pretty nice examples, just for my collection.  I suppose I could go into the Ebay hobbleskit coke selling business because there are hundreds if not thousands laying out in the jungle but it sort of goes against my morals of trying to "tread lightly" and to try to preserve these areas for the next guy with the same interest as me.


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## Asterx (Jan 17, 2013)

Nice story and photos, thanks for sharing!


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## GEEMAN (Jan 17, 2013)

Too cool Dave. Thanks for posting this.


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## tigue710 (Jan 17, 2013)

great post


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## rockbot (Jan 18, 2013)

Should have some nice Hawaii coke bottles there. Good luck, be safe!


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## sandchip (Jan 18, 2013)

> ORIGINAL:  botlguy
> 
> Another great, interesting story, thanks. And *THANK YOU for your service to our country.*


 
 Ditto that.


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## daven2nl (Jan 18, 2013)

> ORIGINAL:  rockbot
> 
> Should have some nice Hawaii coke bottles there. Good luck, be safe!


 
 Actually, out of every 10 hobbleskirt cokes I come across, only one is your standard green city embossed PAT-D bottle.  Usually from either Oakland, San Francisco, Portland, or Seattle.  I recently found a 1941 bottle from Missoula, MT, but that's the only one not of the four cities listed above.  I suspect this is because those cities were all major ports used during the war.

 The other 9 out of 10 bottles are all the clear "wartime" coke bottles specially manufactured for US troops overseas.  4 of those 9 are 1944 PAT-D types, the rest are all 1945 embossed only with "TRADE MARK".  Most have no embossing on the base; some have a letter only or a number.

 I'd love to find a couple Hawaiian coke bottles!

 I need to get back out there this weekend; I recall stumbling across an area where there might be older bottles.  I found an old San Miguel bottle that I can only date to the teens, and an un-embossed turn mold bottle which may be older.  I'm hoping there might be more if I scratch the surface a little.  I'll take photos!


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## RCO (Jan 18, 2013)

thats a neat place to look for bottles , you wouldn't think there'd be so many bottles on a  island like guam . myself if i found anything good i'd just keep it , its not like there going to miss a couple bottles as there looks to be thousands in that dump . but its likely most of the coca cola bottles are the same if the dump was only used during WW2 , be unlikely to find much age in the dump if it was only used during that period .but still a neat place to look .
  we have snakes and spiders in canada but nothing like the one posted . there is only 1 venoumous snake native to my area and i've yet to ever come across one only seen small snakes over the years that are mostly friendly .


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## daven2nl (Jan 20, 2013)

I had an opportunity to go back out exploring today, to an area I had been to many times before.  Some areas of the jungle are pretty thick with brush, and you always have a feeling that around the next tree is something special, so it is hard to turn around and head back.  This time I wanted to relocate a piece of UXO (unexploded ordnance) so I can mark the position for disposal, and I wanted to head a little deeper than I'd gone the last time I'd been in this area, which was several months ago.

 It was a rainy day today, but it was actually quite pleasant.  I got soaking wet but the rain actually helped keep the mosquitoes away and it wasn't as hot as usual.

 Finding the UXO was easy enough; it's not far from a hunting trail I use to access the area.
 I'm posting with slightly larger images; hopefully this doesn't cause anyone issues.







 This may not look like much, but it's an unexploded 75MM pack howitzer high explosive round.  The screw looking thing to the left is part of the fuse mechanism.

 In this area previously, I'd found many American and Japanese bottles.  Through this area used to run a dirt road, abandoned at the end of WW2.  Originally, I rediscovered this road and explored the whole length, finding lots of stuff all along it.  Since that time, I've been revisiting areas along it, after looking at Google Earth and finding potential targets to explore (primarily areas with coconut trees in the jungle which indicate former settlements).

 Now I'm hiking with GPS capability which allows me to explore specific areas, when other times I'm not sure exactly where I'm heading except for some compass headings which to use to find my way home.

 Soon I pass into what is new territory for me, and immediately I start finding stuff.






 This is a crushed 75MM pack howitzer shell casing (American), from the war.

 Not too much further, I find more howitzer shell casings and some scattered Japanese beer bottles.











 You can almost make out part of the embossing around the base "DAINIPPON BREWERY COMPANY LTD" and the "DNB" logo near the next.  These bottles have a distinct shape and are by far the most common WW2 Japanese bottles I find.


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## daven2nl (Jan 20, 2013)

The further I went back the more I found.  I stumble across several pits in the ground, perhaps 4 or 5 feet deep and 20 feet across.  At first I thought bomb crater, and my second thought was they they were American burn pits, but they didn't look like either.  They were too perfectly shaped and had no entry point from where a bulldozer would have gotten in to dig them out.






 This photo does no justice, and it's hard to get a photo that does, but this is one of the 5 or 6 similarly shaped pits I came across.  They were probably separated by 100ft or so.






 Also unusual is that I found absolutely no American bottles around either - only Japanese ones like these Dai Nippon bottles, scattered around each of the pits.






 Here is the base of a Dai Nippon beer bottle, showing the trademark star logo.  The 18 is the year of manufacture - 18th year of the Showa reign, or 1943.  I have not found anything definitive stating that this is in fact the date code, but I have looked at dozens if not hundreds, and am confident I'm correct in thinking this.  Most common numbers are 14-18, which would make sense (1939 to 1943).  I've found none from 1944 which also makes sense because by this time the American submarines had made a big dent in Japanese shipping.

 In the background you see a green bottle which is also a Dai Nippon bottle, but smaller and for a soft drink beverage - Citron.  






 You can see the typical growth in this area.  Very difficult to see more than 10 or 15 ft in any direction.  As a result, I could be missing the mother load of bottles and not even know it.  This is why I often revisit areas, and often stumble across new stuff every time I do.

 I had hoped to find a Japanese Sake bottle.  These are quite rare to find whole.  They are very large, perhaps 20 inches tall and 6 inches in diameter, and are made of a very pretty blue-green glass.  They are very distinctive in shape.  It was not to be today, however.  I did find a piece of one though.






 This is the top of a Japanese WW2 era sake bottle - usually you find them broken.  I think I've only come across 6 or 7 whole ones during all of my exploring.  The story is that in Japan, these bottles, after use, were melted down and blown into fishing floats.  This would make sense, because they are the same color.

 Back to the mysterious pits.  Since I found nothing but Japanese glassware around them, and nothing inside them, I believe this was a former Japanese defensive position, probably an anti-aircraft site.  Most likely these were dug (with great effort into the limestone) to house 25MM AA cannons.   Whether or not the guns were ever emplaced here, I don't know, but I dug around and found nothing in them.  I'll have to come back with a metal detector and look more closely.  When the Americans landed on Saipan in 1944, every ship heading to and from that island passed Guam and lobbed some shells at the defenders when it was still help by the Japanese.  The Japanese never got a chance to finish all their defenses, which may have been the case here.

 I am definitely looking forward to returning to this site and poking around some more!

 -Dave


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## elmoleaf (Jan 20, 2013)

Thank you for posting. I look forward to reading/seeing more. 
 It's so different than what I've encountered.....coal ash/rust/crust/1920s stuff in New England.


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