5-16-04

    Wisconsin is known as the badger state. Can you guess why? Nope, it is not because we have tons of the furry devils up here. It got the name from the lead miners that were here in the 1830s. They didn't live in houses. They stayed in dugouts in the ground and lived like badgers.

    Steve, Craig, and I do our best to be modern day badgers by spending a minimum of one day a week burrowing into the earth. Today was no exception. We ended up digging four pits. Three were pretty thin on glass and mostly bunky newer stuff.

     The second pit of the day was a little better. The first cool bottle was found by Steve. I looked down in the hole and said, "Nice Hosttetters." I should have known better, he was smiling and ogling it way to long. "Nope, it says Bennett Pieters & Co". Then he unearthed it the rest of the way and saw that it had Chicago on one side and 31&33 Michigan Avenue on the other. The other panel was blank and most likely had a paper label. I assumed it to be a bitters or the like.

Bennett Pieters as found

    On my turn, I handed up a slick cobalt colored medicine. I should have cleaned it off a little better, Steve found the GWH embossing high on the shoulder.

    Steve was nearing the bottom on his turn. I saw a weird base sticking out of the bottom. "What the heck is that?" It ended up being a  ringed  E R Durkee pepper sauce.

    Steve with the Durkee

    I went off to probe, Steve was finishing up. He yelled over that I should check something out. He is holding up some barrel looking shards. It was Dr. Roback Stomach Bitters. Awe, to bad it was broken.

    Like I mentioned earlier, the glass was thin today. But, we did go home with a couple keepers.