5/15/05

   Larry shot me an email early in the week. He had 3 properties lined up  downtown. The houses were gone and construction was slated to start soon. He had dug a couple pontil pits there and knew there had to be some more pits  somewhere and didn't want them to get buried forever.

    So there we were bright and early heading down to Sandwich, Il. Quite a drive. It is close to two hours for me and Steve lives another hour and half away. I have never met Larry in person, only chatted via email. He gave me some great directions that I didn't follow. So, we ended up a little behind. Sorry guys!

      We met up and headed right over to the empty lots. Larry showed us the 1869 Bird's Eye View as well as some Sanborns. Next out of the truck were some of the bottles he got from the last dig here.  Including a Hoofland's German Bitters with a thick open pontil scar.

    The lots were large and covered with spots of gravel drive. Plus, the lot was packed down from the demolition equipment. Just the thought of it made my arms and back ache.

    I was probing the middle lot and found a funny spot. The guys said they also had one that felt alright.  We unpacked the gear and started on their pit.

Number 1

    I got pretty excited when one of the first shards out had a big pontil scar on the base. It had to be a late throw, the rest of the stuff wasn't quite that old. There ended up being some slick whole bottles, and a lot of broken stuff. We filled it in and headed for the next one.

Pit 1 take

    This pit contained a lot more bottles and a lot of pottery. Larry called us over on his turn. He was holding a blue colored globe. I thought it was a fire grenade. It ended up being some kind of perfume with a cool swirl pattern.

Perfume

    The hole started getting pretty deep. The soil got stickier as we went down. It made it a pain to shovel.

  Check out all the clay

    We were about finished when Larry's buddy Frank stopped by just in time to help us fill this one in. Frank is just getting started privy digging . Anyway, we got a couple local Moore Drug Store bottles from Sandwich, the perfume, porcelain shoe, Begg's Tropical Oil, and Dr Cavanaughs Pile Salve St Louis MO.

Frank was checking out Steve's permission book and saw where he dug 150 Hostetters from one hole. The guys had never dug a whole one. Steve had a couple give aways sitting in the truck and gave them to Frank and Larry. I made the comment we would probably end up digging forty of them in the next hole.

Pit two take

Pit 3 was under some packed down gravel. But, it was easier digging once the top was removed. Steve pulled up one crier: a green Rumford's. Then on Frank's turn he had a square amber bottle on the run. Of course it had to be a Hostetters, what are the odds?

    We couldn't find any more pits in the lots. Larry had a couple more spots lined up, so we moved on. The next place was also the site of a new commercial building that sat on two lots were houses had been. The back yard was right next to the railroad tracks and was very narrow. The guys found a huge pit in one of the corners. Again, the dig was on.

The start of pit 4

Frank checking out a hock wine.

    By this time everyone was beat from probing and digging. Frank was sitting on the stoop waiting his turn when he spied a penny on the ground. It was an Indian head penny! 

    This pit was loaded with broken stuff. We finished up, regrouped, and talked about making the pick. Larry said he had one more place to check out. I looked over at Steve. Mind you he had a three hour drive and it was already 5pm. He smiled and I knew we would be digging another one!

    This property was on the other side of town. We probed the crap out of one side and the back lot line and found nothing. We were headed back to the truck when Steve noticed a suspicious spot on the other lot line. Sure enough it  was another very large pit. We got down a couple feet and it looked like it would be a screw  top pit. Larry told us not to be discouraged because there are some pretty desirable local milks to be had.

    Half the pit was pretty loaded at the bottom. Plenty of slicks and the ubiquitous medicines were down there.  Steve came up with a pretty neat decorated pipe bowl.

Fancy pipe bowl.

    I didn't get any good pics of this pit. We were pressed for time so we made a quick pick and jumped in the truck for the long trip home. Thanks for the invite Larry!