UnderMiner
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A few years ago I read a history article which made a brief mention of a saloon built over the water in the 1860's. The article noted the saloon had been blown away in a storm in the 1890's and all physical traces of it were lost forever.
I waited for low tide and using the only known map depicting the structure I hiked far and wide to the area I estimated the location to have been. For awhile I saw no sign of anything, I began to question if my 150 year old map was accurate. But then I noticed something that was out of place... a bottle, an old bottle, sitting on the surface of the mud as if it had been dropped yesterday... it was a D. H. Smith bottle, a style of which I had never encountered before...
And then another one...
And then a real heart breaker, the coveted D. H. Smith Codd, broken at the top...
And then, the bottom of a torpedo bottle...
An 1890's Theo Young bottle broken at the top...
And then I found something that convinced me beyond a doubt that I had found the long lost saloon. Back then electricity was still very new, but as my research indicated, the saloon had a power line, one of the first in the area...
A Cauvet's insulator, patented 1865, patent reissued in 1870. Part of the old power line to the saloon.
As I was leaving due to the water quickly rising I also found a slick blob soda at the last moment.
The prominent finds:
The broken D. H. Smith Codd (1878 reissued patent), the two unusual D. H. Smith blob bottles (8 inches tall, 2 and 1/4 inches wide, seriously has anyone ever encountered bottles like this before?), the slick blob top soda, and the Cauvet's insulator (1870 reissued patent, from 55 Fulton Street). I also found countless smaller glass fragments, ceramic ginger beer bottle fragments, and various other bits and bobs.
I will be returning to the site with more appropriate attire soon, better equipped, and as it seems most of the finds are under water - a diving mask, fins, and snorkel. I merely found the artifacts that got swept into the shallows. Who knows what the next hunt will bring now that I know the exact location and can bring proper tools. As the artifacts so far all indicate we have entered a time machine back to the 1860's-1890's era when a saloon once stood over the sea before a storm washed it all away. How cool is that?
I waited for low tide and using the only known map depicting the structure I hiked far and wide to the area I estimated the location to have been. For awhile I saw no sign of anything, I began to question if my 150 year old map was accurate. But then I noticed something that was out of place... a bottle, an old bottle, sitting on the surface of the mud as if it had been dropped yesterday... it was a D. H. Smith bottle, a style of which I had never encountered before...
And then another one...
And then a real heart breaker, the coveted D. H. Smith Codd, broken at the top...
And then, the bottom of a torpedo bottle...
An 1890's Theo Young bottle broken at the top...
And then I found something that convinced me beyond a doubt that I had found the long lost saloon. Back then electricity was still very new, but as my research indicated, the saloon had a power line, one of the first in the area...
A Cauvet's insulator, patented 1865, patent reissued in 1870. Part of the old power line to the saloon.
As I was leaving due to the water quickly rising I also found a slick blob soda at the last moment.
The prominent finds:
The broken D. H. Smith Codd (1878 reissued patent), the two unusual D. H. Smith blob bottles (8 inches tall, 2 and 1/4 inches wide, seriously has anyone ever encountered bottles like this before?), the slick blob top soda, and the Cauvet's insulator (1870 reissued patent, from 55 Fulton Street). I also found countless smaller glass fragments, ceramic ginger beer bottle fragments, and various other bits and bobs.
I will be returning to the site with more appropriate attire soon, better equipped, and as it seems most of the finds are under water - a diving mask, fins, and snorkel. I merely found the artifacts that got swept into the shallows. Who knows what the next hunt will bring now that I know the exact location and can bring proper tools. As the artifacts so far all indicate we have entered a time machine back to the 1860's-1890's era when a saloon once stood over the sea before a storm washed it all away. How cool is that?
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