5/1/04

    Good fortune smiled on the We Dig Wisconsin Crew today. It rained all night threatening to hamper our plans. It decided to let up in the morning. Steve met me  and the dig was on. It was early so we started in an empty lot. We had permission next door. We just wanted the people to wake up before we invaded their yard. The first pit was pretty bunky. The best bottle was a Zaegel's Swedish Essence from Sheboygan, WI.

    This passed enough time for the neighbor's to start stirring. I knocked on the door and got the go ahead. We had about six pits left in this yard. Steve was probing trying to figure out which one felt the best. Next thing you know he is following the outline of what appears to be a stone liner. Pontil fever immediately set in. These stone liners produce the oldest stuff in these parts. To add to the fever, this pit was huge. Six feet by four feet.  I was being cautiously optimistic. This was too good to be true.

    Sure enough we found the walls and started inching our way closer to pontil heaven. The dirt was rich and black. Not to much broken stuff mixed in. Steve was first to clunk on hidden glass. Carefully he pulled back the earth to reveal a piece of crap ketchup.  We laughed out loud for a good minute. Some body used this one for years. Scooping the good stuff only to fill it in with 1900s crap. Oh well, maybe we could get a milk or soda we haven't seen.

    Around three feet, the black dirt layer changed to sand. Insult to injury, the bottom already. A quick, but gentle probing revealed this to be a sand cap. Could this get better. Steve decide to perform a depth charge in the corner and peek at what was hiding there. It was thick with pottery and glass shards. Some 1870s smooth base bottles started to show.  Then, there it it was. A blue aqua soda, iron pontilled. Broken but embossed with E.D. Gillis.

    This was indeed a pontil pit. We started finding shards of  pontilled historical flasks, medicines, fruit jars, etc. Not to much whole stuff. The inconsiderate people in the past made it a point of smashing everything. We cleaned her out pretty good to the last corner. I could tell Steve was Jonesing for something whole. Being the kind privy digger partner I have become, I told him to take a couple extra minutes on his turn. He capitalized on this one chance at redemption and managed to find an open pontil utility in an awesome shade of olive! Just the kind of stuff he enjoys, even though it doesn't do much for me.

Olive pontil bottle

Lots of shards, she was loaded

Union clasped hands, the good stuff is always broken

The take from the pontil pit

    These people must have written a lot of letters. We found many different pottery and glass inks. There were at least five different broken flasks including: a couple clasped hands and double eagles. Also we found a Radway's, milk glass Hagan's, smooth base Davis' Vegetable Pain Killer, nice painted marble, chipped OP  Liquid Opedeldoc, blue banded bowl, George Reed Domestic Dye, Billings dome ink,  and an E.H. Flagg's Instantaneous Relief..

    Pit number three was right next to the stone liner. We did get a teal colored cone ink, and a cobalt Chicago Medicine.

    Pit number four took a 70 year swing toward the future. We closed this one in a hurry fearing the turds may still be warm.

    Pit five was a little older but not much better. We opened it up a little and did find an Esser Soda, and a Coca-Cola from Madison.

    The owner of this place also owned the adjacent house. Still riding the pontil pit high, we switched yards and attempted to end the day with another pontil pit. We picked a deep smooth pit to open up. We got to the layer at 7 feet. Pink ash and milk bottles, tons of them.  We got this one done and called it a day.

    We have picked through pit after pit, yard after yard  in this neighborhood. We have half the block dug. Not one hutch or embossed blob. Where are they? There is stuff here from 1840-1870. Then it takes a twenty year jump to the late 90s. Maybe next week.....