11/30/03

I got home from deer hunting itching to dig. Steve had already dug Saturday with no reported success.  To bad Gloria, his wife, had to work. This meant Sunday was free, and we could dig. The morning started out typical. We had places to probe, but someone had already been there a decade or two previously and helped themselves to untold goodies. We opened up one that was right on the alley. Concrete road and an approach hindered us on two sides. The other two sides were impeded by monster roots from a tree nearby. A foot down a couple of coffin flasks popped out. We agreed the effort would be to great and decided to save it for another day.

I had remembered digging this one yard, and Steve mentioning a bunch of times about how he got an open pontil, H Lakes Indian Specific from the neighboring yard. He explained," It was a deep hole, it was getting dark, and this drunk guy was bird dogging, lending unwanted advice." He went on to explain how he didn't do a good job cleaning the bottom and edges before filling it in.

I suggested going back and away we went. The guy who owns the place is the best. Don knows Steve, and has been by on several digs. It is always fun when he stops by. Anyway Don let us in and we started to dig. Even though it had been dug, I still caught myself picking up pieces to see what was there. We got down to the bottom and found some stuff that was missed! Some unembossed stuff, but a least it looked promising. We were down to the last edge when Steve says,"There's a Drake Plantation Bitters down here."   "No way", I say.   "No joke" Steve says.

I hand down the camera so he can get an "as found" picture. Two seconds later, he is showing it off. A five log, intact, in amber. Sweet.  That was it for the bottom. Steve knocked down the sides and hands me up shard. It was an iron pontil, Bronchitis cure from Philadelphia. Check out the color, emerald green. Crap, the best are always broken.

It was a lot of work, good thing we found a keeper! We found a couple more spots in the yard. The one ended up being an ash pit, no glass. The other one is next to a big tree, we are going to save it for later.

Plantation Bitters     Well worth it!