Home 2003 Stories 1-10-04 2004 Stories

 

    4/4/04

 

        Special thanks goes out to Steve and Craig this week. They still have faith to come dig, even though we have been on a string of bunk pits out here. Also, we lost an hour to Daylight Savings Time. Those guys were on the road early to make the two hour trek to get here from Racine by 6:30 am.

        The empty lot we have been digging is loaded with 1900 era pits. The first one we started was no exception. All the bottles coming out were automatic bottle machine. Two amber crown beers were found. One being a Hamm from St Paul, the other a Golden Grain Belt Beer. We got it down about 5 feet, and were about ready to give up. Then, Craig has to find a deep aqua Davis Vegetable Pain Killer with an applied top. So, we wasted more time on this pit hoping to find some older stuff. It never happened. Had to be a late throw or a left over from the danged honey dippers.

4-4-04first.jpg (418067 bytes) Bottles from the first pit

    Then next pit we started was in the center of the yard. It was a couple years older. We found a couple local bottles for my collection. They were damaged, but I have never seen these examples. One was a pint milk from the "Eclipse Dairy" . Another being a soda from "Graham and Brown". 

    We were actually killing time by doing these pits. We were waiting for the neighbor Ray to come outside. He had invited us to dig a couple weeks ago. Well, Ray wasn't coming around so we decide to dig a spot Steve had probed out. Nothing to spectacular was coming out about a foot and a half down. Same old bunk whiskeys and generic medicines. I was up and swiped with the shovel a few times and stopped in disbelief as a blue aqua scroll flask, with an iron pontil, is staring up at me. It was broke, but we all got excited, we might be into a good one. A few more shovels of dirt reveal a broken Drakes Plantation Bitters in amber. Crap, this was part of the bottle we found two weeks ago. The pit was looking like all it had was broken bottles including:  a very yellow, yellow amber Drakes, a nice shade of olive Udolpho Wolfes Schnapps iron pontilled, open pontil Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup, half pint Geo W Robinson/No75/Main St/ West Virginia whiskey flask, another aqua scroll flask. Figures the best stuff is always broke. Steve pulled out a  JR Nichols & Co that Craig had left for him in the pit.  We all had a few more turns and I was up again.  I could hardly believe my eyes when I spied a miniature umbrella ink, safely nestled in the sand. I turned it over and saw the open pontil underneath. I just started to laugh. I handed it up. Steve gladly examines it and exclaims, "Did you see the color, it is lime green!" It looked aqua when I had it in the hole. Then he informs me it is embossed. "No way, get out." I say. He wasn't joking. It has BB&Co on the side. WAY COOL!

4-4-04criers.jpg (373608 bytes) Look at all those criers!

4-4-04wholebottle.jpg (252344 bytes) The whole JR Nichols & Co

4-4-04dave.jpg (290874 bytes) Dave with the ink

4-4-04BB.jpg (213084 bytes) Close up of the BB&Co umbrella

    Craig was up next. The bottom of the privy was done. He was knocking the sides down and he found an intact Andersons Dermador and a broken Shaker Fluid/Extract Valerian.  When he was done, it was off to the next pit in line. This one was full of screw top crap. We opened it up to 3' level and decided it wasn't worth while to pursue. It was to late to start another. We closed shop and planned the dig for the next week.