# Some Bottles We Recently Dug Up In Our "Back Yard".



## Gene (May 12, 2016)

First post, so hello fellow and lady bottle lovers!

I've been into dairy bottles, pop bottles, jars, you name it for over 30 years. My first love is local dairy bottles but I love all glass. I had a fairly extensive pop bottle, Mason and Ball jar collection but pared down several years ago as our place here is pretty small.

I live on the side of a mountain in a forest off of an old logging road in a small town in Northern Calif. near the Oregon border. I left the rat race of Los Angeles and moved here 23 years ago to live the rural life and love it!

Our little piece of property here has proven to be a bottle lover's paradise over the years. My wife and I have dug around here and there over the years and have found a lot of medicine, whiskey, dairy and all sorts of miscellaneous bottles. This is an old railroad town and in the old days folks just used to walk out of their door and throw trash over the side of the mountain.

A few weeks ago after some really heavy rains, my wife was on our little walk-around deck that overlooks the mountainside, when she saw a small glint of light reflecting the sun. She came and got me and said it looked like the top of a bottle. I looked and could make out what looked like the tops of two bottles.

So we went down the mountain side and started digging around. There were pieces of glass and broken bottles everywhere. We had poked around in this spot in the past but the heavy rains had uncovered what looked to be a past resident's dumping spot from many years ago.

There was a lot of fresh poison oak popping up everywhere from the rains so we had to be careful in our digging. In just about a half hour or so we uncovered several bottles. We had neglected to bring a bag or anything to carry multiple bottles so we decided to haul our bottles back up to the cabin.

The bottles were very dirty and some were completely filled with dirt but they cleaned up nicely. They aren't anything really special but it sure is neat to find old bottles in your own "back yard".  

The poison oak had completely taken over the spot in just a couple of days but we plan on going back in early spring next year when the poison oak is again dormant and see what other "treasures" we can uncover. 

Sorry for the long post but here's the bottles we found in just that short half hour. The old Sani-Clor bottle was a special favorite because of the heavy embossing, pretty color and it still had it's heavily embossed cap. 

We also found a very heavy one gallon Dura-Glass wine bottle with a heavy finger hold in mint condition, (after much cleaning!), marked 1947 but my brother snatched that one up before I could take a picture of it! 

Oh yeah, that slender bottle in the middle of the bottom row is a Heinz, (maybe ketchup?), bottle that still had it's original cap.


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## RCO (May 12, 2016)

it looks like a 40's / 50's era dump , might be some other bottles there if you noticed they were popping up  , any pictures of the older bottles you found on property in past digs , they sound more interesting  ?


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## Gene (May 12, 2016)

Thanks for your response RCO but as I said above, they weren't anything special or "interesting" but just posting what we recently found. Sorry they didn't interest you. Any bottles you dig on your own property are "special".

You are correct that most of the bottles we've found here are from the '40's and '50's but we have found some that are earlier and I'll try and get some of them pictured here. That aside, I'm delighted in anything from the '40's, '50's, or even '60's or '70's that we find! I'm not a professional bottle collector but just love finding bottles buried in the ground!

By the way, thanks for your indifferent and non-welcoming post to my first thread here. Sorry if your post struck a kind of an indifferent cord to me and it looks like you're a "Bottle Master" but some of us delight in finding things that clean up nicely and are proud of what we find whether they're valuable or not. It's all about the fun of our hobby!


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## hemihampton (May 12, 2016)

Hi Gene, Welcome to the site. Yes, any bottles found so close to home is a good find. Do you ever find any old rusty dented beer cans. I collect those.  LEON.


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## botlguy (May 13, 2016)

Hi Gene, welcome to the forums. Yes, RCOs post was insensitive, please don't judge the rest of us by his indifference. Many of us have become jaded by older, perhaps more monetarily valuable bottles, that is unfortunate. I also still collect what appeals to me

Please share other finds, we'll try to be more polite.            Jim


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## RCO (May 13, 2016)

I was still interested in seeing what bottles he had discovered on his property . just the history of the area , being an old railway town . the older bottles sounded more interested , it sounds like the kind of place where some interesting finds could of been made


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## botlguy (May 13, 2016)

Please, let's all keep this in proper perspective. RCO, your response was poorly stated and open to misinterpretation. Gene, your response, while understandable, was a little quick on the defense but well stated.

Remember, the written word shows no body language. I'm reminded of a line from an old John Wayne movie: "Smile when you say that, Mister". That smile makes the difference between life and death. 

Everyone, read and edit, if necessary, ALL your posts. BE KIND, BE FRIENDLY. Golden Rule.           Jim


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## Gene (May 13, 2016)

hemihampton said:


> Hi Gene, Welcome to the site. Yes, any bottles found so close to home is a good find. Do you ever find any old rusty dented beer cans. I collect those.  LEON.



Hi Leon,
Funny you should mention that as we have found old beer cans in the past. Unfortunately I don't collect them and gave them to a gent I knew awhile back who did. If we find any more I'll let you know. 



botlguy said:


> Hi Gene, welcome to the forums. Yes, RCOs post was insensitive, please don't judge the rest of us by his indifference. Many of us have become jaded by older, perhaps more monetarily valuable bottles, that is unfortunate. I also still collect what appeals to me
> 
> Please share other finds, we'll try to be more polite.            Jim



Hi Jim,
Thanks for your welcome and I try hard in my old age not to judge anymore. 



RCO said:


> I was still interested in seeing what bottles he had discovered on his property . just the history of the area , being an old railway town . the older bottles sounded more interested , it sounds like the kind of place where some interesting finds could of been made



I understand RCO and I apologize if I came across a little crass sounding. I just love finding old bottles no matter what their age or worth. Being my town has been a railroad town for over 150 years, I'm sure there's still some treasures to be uncovered by us or others. 



botlguy said:


> Please, let's all keep this in proper perspective. RCO, your response was poorly stated and open to misinterpretation. Gene, your response, while understandable, was a little quick on the defense but well stated.
> 
> Remember, the written word shows no body language. I'm reminded of a line from an old John Wayne movie: "Smile when you say that, Mister". That smile makes the difference between life and death.
> 
> Everyone, read and edit, if necessary, ALL your posts. BE KIND, BE FRIENDLY. Golden Rule.           Jim



Hi Jim,
You're correct in assuming I was too quick in my defense of RCO's post. For that I apologize. I just wanted to tell my story and wasn't meaning to imply the bottle finds had any significance or value, just that I wanted to share. Love your John Wayne analogy to the written word! 

Thanks to all!


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## hemihampton (May 14, 2016)

Thanks for sharing your story, I like to read any story on bottle finds. If you ever find anymore Beer Cans save them for me, Many rare cans came from California & I'll trade good bottles or cash for rare ones. THANKS, LEON.


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## falls (Feb 21, 2017)

Too new


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## sandchip (Feb 25, 2017)

falls said:


> Too new



That would be up to the beholder so lighten up.  We all had to start somewhere, depending on how fortunate we were in our early finds.  We should all be encouraging to newcomers to our hobby.  I started with picking up the same type bottles shown here by Gene, and ended up 43 years later collecting junk like this:  




I like the old Sani-Clor, Gene.  I've got a display of different bleach and cleanser bottles above the cabinets in the laundry room.  That's one I've never heard of here down South.


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