# CHATTOLANEE WATER



## cobaltbot (May 21, 2006)

Took the aft off Thursday to join up with some buds that annually camp out at a Traditional Bowman long weekend.  While they shoot 3D targets I go hiking, biking,  kayaking or bottle searching.  Walked about 4 miles which felt like forty but finally found a place around 7pm.  A little ditch dump had an ACL milk laying on top of the ground and although not the age I was looking for I decided to give it a try.  There was a piece of a big ABM water laying  on the ground and later I dug up the other two pieces.  I dug what looked like a whole large jug, but did not mantra "please let it be whole" enough times cuz of course the handle was missing when I turned it over.   By the time it was getting dark I hadn't found anything great but the place was promising enough to start at Friday morning.  Friday mornng was beautiful and ten minutes into it the hand rake slid on a large bottle that had a top and yes! it was just like the one on the broken water. Slowly I freed it up and held up a big mint aqua  CHATTOLANEE WATER/ CHATTOLANEE, MD./ REGISTERED   Made my day, should have quit right then as it didn't get better or older (funny how that often happens).  Although ABM, and listed as common, any bottle I dig as a crier automatically goes on my want list.  Found a couple more ACL milks with some paint left but I'm leaving them to dry with the mud on them as that is recommended.  The one I found on top of the ground is in great shape and being 1945 has a  a stylized eagle  with a slogan:  PLAN MEALS TO AVOID WASTE

 Although I had never heard of Chattolanee, Md a quick search on the web revealed that it was in Baltimore County only about 15 miles away from where I dug it.  Chattolanee is a historic black commmunity formed after the emancipation proclamation when local wealthy whites offered to build a church and provide some land so that their workers did not leave for the cities.  According to old church records Chattolanee was a Piscataway  Indian word meaning clear water and supposedly the Susquehannocks also used the springs for their healing properties.  Sometime after 1889 a resort hotel was built in the area.


----------



## cowseatmaize (May 21, 2006)

Ain't it cool when you CAN find the history of stuff?
 Nice bottles!


----------



## bottlediger (May 22, 2006)

Nice, i have the older variation of that bottle


----------



## cobaltbot (May 22, 2006)

I really like it even if it's a common one.  Nothing like digging a whole one the day after digging a crier!  Mine has the diamond I on the base so according to Dave Whitten's web site should date between 1915 - 1929.  Think I'm going to check out Chattalanee and see what happened to that hotel, probably a Walmart[]


----------



## cobaltbot (Oct 20, 2006)

*In search of Chattolanee Spring*

I am happy to report that Chattolanee Spring is alive and well!  A couple days ago I had to go to Towson (northern outskirts of Baltimore) for a dental appointment.  After my root canal I decided to head a little west to see what I could find out.  When I spotted the Greenspring United Methodist Church I knew I was close as this is where most of the history of the spring has come from.


----------



## cobaltbot (Oct 20, 2006)

*RE: In search of Chattolanee Spring*

Stopping at the church I went up to the house next door and after asking about the spring, a lady there told me to talk to Tom in the house on the other side of the church as his ancestors were somehow involved with the spring and that they are mentioned in a book about the spring.  Unfortunately, he was at work, but another neighbor who was outside gave me his last name so I can call him.  The neighbor gave me directions to the spring but said it was capped to keep people from getting water.  I found the spring easily and it is not under a Walmart as I feared but protected in the corner of a ritzy development.


----------



## cobaltbot (Oct 20, 2006)

*RE: In search of Chattolanee Spring*

The lid was unlocked so I opened it up and gazed down into the clear pool bubbling up into a brick lined oval.   I got an idea and went back to the car for a bucket and filled water bottles with the clear cold water.  As I was carrying the bucket back to the car a lady from the neighborhood stopped her SUV and told me the neighborhood still uses the water from a source underground but capped the spring to keep people from getting to the contaminated surface water.  She gave me her phone number and said to call her for more information about the spring.  I had to dig a well on our property a couple years back when our spring temporarily (18 months) slowed to a trickle.  The spring water tasted better even though there were salamanders, etc. living in there.  Once your system is used to that, thereâ€™s no problem and probably only someone on city water would get sick, I think thatâ€™s the case with Chattolanee Spring.


----------



## cobaltbot (Oct 20, 2006)

*RE: In search of Chattolanee Spring*

Chattolanee bottle refilled with Chattolanee Water for the first time in at least 77 years!


----------



## downeastdigger (Oct 20, 2006)

Great Story!   Not many times where you can re-fill a bottle with it's original content like that.
 I had a long long fruitless dumphunting hike yesterday.  No bottles, but great to be out in the New England autumn,  it feels like paradise around here this time of year.

 Glad your persistance paid off.
 Bram


----------



## cobaltbot (Oct 20, 2006)

Thanks Bram, rainy here today, but I second your thoughts about being out this time of year.  After the spring I was also skunked at a place on the way home, all I got was a couple brass door plates.  Also found shards to a $750 + monogrammed Leader Jar - wish that one was whole.....oh well, keep plugging!


----------



## capsoda (Oct 20, 2006)

Great story Steve. I agree with you on the water. I can't drink city water. Tastes like crap and gives me a headache.


----------



## HawaiiGlass4me (Oct 20, 2006)

That's what I love about collecting old bottles. It's all the history behind it.


----------



## zanes_antiques (Oct 21, 2006)

Great bottle and a great story to go along with it.I think I'll refill one of my coke bottles with some new coke lol j/k.


----------



## cobaltbot (Oct 22, 2006)

Thanks guys......good one Zane[]


----------



## Chattolanee (Mar 4, 2007)

*RE: In search of Chattolanee Spring*

This is my first post here, having just found the site.  I live on Chattolanee hill, on part of the site of the old hotel, which promoted the water of the six area springs.  The springs certainly are alive and well - all of the houses on the hill still get water from from the main spring, which you found.  When we first moved here 10 years ago, I found 2 whole jugs with the Chattolanee insignia.  I did no more bottle hunting until yesterday, when some gardening resulted in a cobalt blue bromo-seltzer bottle which struck my interest.  Digging a bit, I found a number of bottles from the era of the hotel, including Rubifoam for Teeth, Chelf's Celery Caffeine, & Husband's Magnesia Calcine, as well as some that I've not been able to find any info on.  I was so jazzed that I ended up digging by moonlight last night and was out again first thing this morning.  My online quest for info led me to this site.  I had no idea that such a forum existed!


----------



## JOETHECROW (Mar 4, 2007)

*RE: In search of Chattolanee Spring*

WELCOME~...It's a great hobby/addiction, It's interesting where you find bottles and vr. hard to stop...                                                                                           Joe


----------



## bevyn (Mar 4, 2007)

*RE: In search of Chattolanee Spring*

Awsome story and bottle dude! Now you just need a cork for that baby


----------



## madman (Mar 4, 2007)

*RE: In search of Chattolanee Spring*

wow! great story great bottle! as well as chattolanees post lets see those garden dug bottles


----------



## Chattolanee (Mar 4, 2007)

*RE: In search of Chattolanee Spring*

We'll try to clean and post pix tomorrow.  As a complete newbie I know I'll have questions.  For instance, one of my Chattolanee bottles has a lid.  Does this make any real difference?  I know that bottle is common, as I'm sure everything I've found so far is.  

 The bulk of what is turning up seems to be refuse from the hotel, in a swath from our yard down to one of the springs, concentrated at the bases of tree trunks.  I'm wondering why the hotel guests had so many medicinal-looking bottles.  They must have really been "vacationing."

 Also, does anyone know anything about the Maryland Brewing Co?  A symbol that looks like theirs has turned up on a wee bottle that has no other writing on it.


----------



## Chattolanee (Mar 4, 2007)

*RE: In search of Chattolanee Spring*

A couple more i.d. questions, which I know I should wait to ask until I post pictures, but am too impatient.

 I can't find info on one bottle marked:  
 Tregor's 
 E.R.B. Univeral Dandruff Relief and Hair Invigorator.  
 A germicide.   
 M.Tregor Sons
 Baltimore, MD
 Washington DC

 Another is Walker-Gordon Laboratory Modified Milk.  It is about 7 inches long, has a rounded bottom, and what looks to be increment markings on the back side.  Could this be a baby bottle?

 Another is marked Van Buskirk's Fragrant Sozodont for the Teeth and Breath.
 Another is marked Holmes Fragrant Frostilla Elmira NY.  

 A dumb question - why do so many bottles have round bottoms?  Did they rest in bases?
 I won't get into the other mysteries without pictures.  Anything look out of the ordinary?  Any sources for any of these companies?

 Thanks in advance


----------



## madman (Mar 4, 2007)

*RE: In search of Chattolanee Spring*

yo chatto sounds like some good stuff youre finding also cool that you can link it to the hotel hold on to that stuff might have historical significance cant wait to see the pix


----------



## RedGinger (Jun 27, 2008)

*RE: In search of Chattolanee Spring*

What an interesting post.  I'm interested in East Towson and the history there of the slaves, but I don't know much about Chattolanee.  I know the Greenspring area.


----------



## RICKJJ59W (Jun 27, 2008)

*RE: In search of Chattolanee Spring*

Cool story! I love drinking out of bottles I dug,I dug a 70s soda near mint, I use that as a drinking bottle at dinner sometime.[]


----------



## RedGinger (Jun 27, 2008)

*RE: In search of Chattolanee Spring*

Also, the Susquehannock Indians that cobalt mentioned as naming Chattolanee are very interesting.  I researched them when I found arrowheads here.  It's fascinating to know who made the arrowheads you found.


----------

