paleomaxx
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- Aug 14, 2016
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- Detector(s) used
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This is a project that I've always wanted to do, but has been on the back-burner for one reason or another. Finally this last week I crossed the biggest hurdle and actually built the sifting rig that I designed.
It's about 7 feet long and the first sifting gauge (1/2") is on rollers so you just have to push it back and forth. The lower level is 1/4" and can be removed of need be, but it would catch any smaller pieces like porcelain buttons (and on a great day gold $1 coins
).
The site itself has been an amazing one for metal detecting. Over the past year I've pulled almost a dozen large cents, as well as a 1780 one real, buttons, buckles, and every farm tool imaginable. It was this past winter that I discovered a bottle dump that is usually completely covered in brush and brambles. Right on the surface the detector picked out a NY state civil war button in almost pristine shape so I knew I had a good spot, but like most dumps there was too much iron noise to pick out anything but obvious targets. However sifting would be another story! Unfortunately, now being spring/summer, it meant a little pruning work:
That is what it looked like from the path and it took about an hour on Friday with a saw and machete to clear a path to the dump itself which looked like this before digging:
We hiked in all the supplies and tools (as well as a large cooler of drinks) and started digging Saturday. The ground was incredibly rocky with small to giant bits of slate everywhere and the roots held them together making it hard to shift them. We quickly abandoned the shovels and used the 4-pronged garden rakes which worked very well and didn't have as much potential for damage to the relics. We'd fill up a 5-gallon bucket with the loam and periodically sift.
Every bucket was an adventure and even after a few shakes you could see all the glass and porcelain bits emerge from the rich loam. I quickly filled up a huge bucket with the glass fragments and we had to start getting very picky just because of the shear volume of fragments. I generally only kept pieces that could be later identified from wording or unusual patters. Even still we have about 60lbs of glass. I estimate there were at least 200 bottles dumped here, but we only found three that managed to survive intact.
We also sorted out ceramic, iron, and a surprising number of intact quahog shells.
The dump itself was odd in that it wasn't deep at all. Originally I had though we would be digging into layers of trash and as we went deeper we'd find older relics, but instead almost everything was in the first 4 inches and below was just rock fragments. Thinking it might have been a cap we dug a pilot hole over a foot down and instead hit bedrock.
Because of this we had to dig out to find more of the dump and it did continue for about 15 feet in all directions until an abrupt end. Despite that; it ended up being an enormous amount of dirt and in retrospect we were fortunate for the low depth we ended up digging. Not to mention virtually every cubic foot of dirt was filled with relics of one kind or another. There wasn't a dull moment all weekend and that's the best you can ask for! So here are the results of our many hours of labor (minus the broken glass, ceramic, and iron bits):
As you can see it was a plethora of different relics and materials. The date range was a very tight 1860s to 1890 with only a few outliers from earlier years and not so much as a shotgun headstamp from modern times.
I was personally very excited about the clay pipe bits. Out of the pit came my first designed bowl and shockingly an intact stem. I'm still amazed it didn't break when the tossed it and again when we dug it back up. One stem was stamped "Germany" which would suggest later manufacture and I haven't been able to match the beautiful crane or swan bowl to a specific maker yet.
Above are the three intact bottle recovered. The inkwell is super cool and marked J&IEM Pat Oct 30 1865. The maker is John and Isaac Elijah Moore and I believe this was made in Massachusetts. Not a rare bottle by any means, but a very cool "Igloo" shape and I love the aquamarine coloring. The pill bottle may be my favorite though. Out of all the huge thick soda and wine bottles in the dump, how this delicate little things survived intact is a mystery, but I'm glad we didn't damage it in the recovery; I don't think I would have forgiven myself. There were also a number of intact glass bottle stoppers and some cool ceramic maker's mark fragments that are hopefully enough for identifying. Also the "Turtle" cup which is a beautiful mystery.
Some other non-metallic finds were these comb fragments, and this whetstone piece.
As expected there were a number of oil lamp fragments both of the glass bulbs, and the brass wick holders. These found during the weekend bring the total to 15 from this dump since I recovered quite a few during the winter using the metal detector. Almost all were right at the surface so it seems they tossed the lamps last. There were also a good number of buckles including a couple of nice suspender examples.
One buckle stands out, and it's by far the oldest piece we found:
This gorgeous Artois show buckle has an intact silver finish with marking all around. The iron chape rusted away long ago and it looks like it was bent. The other star find of the weekend was another NY State Excelsior button is fantastic condition!
Just a little lemon juice and it looks like it was lost yesterday! The last photo is this one reunited with the other after well over 100 years. I was really hoping we'd find a whole uniform's worth, but even two is incredible. However as amazing as pulling that out the ground was; this really took the cake:
This is a NYSFA (New York State Firemen's Association) 15th Annual Convention Delegate's medal. It's dated 1888 and took place in Cortland NY which is a fair distance from here. It took some time to find a match online and the only one I could find with a photo is misidentified as 1886. The organization was founded in 1872 and it looks like they had conventions each year in different NY towns. If my research is correct the NYSFA became the FASNY which actually has a museum dedicated to firefighting in Hudson NY which is fairly close to here. I'm hoping I can get more information from them and perhaps even a list of attendees from those early conventions to match this medal to its owner. In any case; it helped identify this mystery piece from the pit:
It's been suggested that it's an internal piece of an antique hose nozzle designed to broaden out the spray. If so I wonder if he got it at the convention or if it was broken at the local firehouse. At any rate, there's tons more research to be done.
This was an incredible experience and it's far from over. It's going to a lot more work to clear, but the cellar hole is next on the list and I'm hoping that that produces more of the older relics that I expected to find. I'm also confident that this wasn't the only dump on the property and that there's an older pit waiting to be found nearby. Fingers crossed that I'll have lots more interesting relics to post!
It's about 7 feet long and the first sifting gauge (1/2") is on rollers so you just have to push it back and forth. The lower level is 1/4" and can be removed of need be, but it would catch any smaller pieces like porcelain buttons (and on a great day gold $1 coins
). The site itself has been an amazing one for metal detecting. Over the past year I've pulled almost a dozen large cents, as well as a 1780 one real, buttons, buckles, and every farm tool imaginable. It was this past winter that I discovered a bottle dump that is usually completely covered in brush and brambles. Right on the surface the detector picked out a NY state civil war button in almost pristine shape so I knew I had a good spot, but like most dumps there was too much iron noise to pick out anything but obvious targets. However sifting would be another story! Unfortunately, now being spring/summer, it meant a little pruning work:
That is what it looked like from the path and it took about an hour on Friday with a saw and machete to clear a path to the dump itself which looked like this before digging:
We hiked in all the supplies and tools (as well as a large cooler of drinks) and started digging Saturday. The ground was incredibly rocky with small to giant bits of slate everywhere and the roots held them together making it hard to shift them. We quickly abandoned the shovels and used the 4-pronged garden rakes which worked very well and didn't have as much potential for damage to the relics. We'd fill up a 5-gallon bucket with the loam and periodically sift.
Every bucket was an adventure and even after a few shakes you could see all the glass and porcelain bits emerge from the rich loam. I quickly filled up a huge bucket with the glass fragments and we had to start getting very picky just because of the shear volume of fragments. I generally only kept pieces that could be later identified from wording or unusual patters. Even still we have about 60lbs of glass. I estimate there were at least 200 bottles dumped here, but we only found three that managed to survive intact.
We also sorted out ceramic, iron, and a surprising number of intact quahog shells.
The dump itself was odd in that it wasn't deep at all. Originally I had though we would be digging into layers of trash and as we went deeper we'd find older relics, but instead almost everything was in the first 4 inches and below was just rock fragments. Thinking it might have been a cap we dug a pilot hole over a foot down and instead hit bedrock.
Because of this we had to dig out to find more of the dump and it did continue for about 15 feet in all directions until an abrupt end. Despite that; it ended up being an enormous amount of dirt and in retrospect we were fortunate for the low depth we ended up digging. Not to mention virtually every cubic foot of dirt was filled with relics of one kind or another. There wasn't a dull moment all weekend and that's the best you can ask for! So here are the results of our many hours of labor (minus the broken glass, ceramic, and iron bits):
As you can see it was a plethora of different relics and materials. The date range was a very tight 1860s to 1890 with only a few outliers from earlier years and not so much as a shotgun headstamp from modern times.
I was personally very excited about the clay pipe bits. Out of the pit came my first designed bowl and shockingly an intact stem. I'm still amazed it didn't break when the tossed it and again when we dug it back up. One stem was stamped "Germany" which would suggest later manufacture and I haven't been able to match the beautiful crane or swan bowl to a specific maker yet.
Above are the three intact bottle recovered. The inkwell is super cool and marked J&IEM Pat Oct 30 1865. The maker is John and Isaac Elijah Moore and I believe this was made in Massachusetts. Not a rare bottle by any means, but a very cool "Igloo" shape and I love the aquamarine coloring. The pill bottle may be my favorite though. Out of all the huge thick soda and wine bottles in the dump, how this delicate little things survived intact is a mystery, but I'm glad we didn't damage it in the recovery; I don't think I would have forgiven myself. There were also a number of intact glass bottle stoppers and some cool ceramic maker's mark fragments that are hopefully enough for identifying. Also the "Turtle" cup which is a beautiful mystery.
Some other non-metallic finds were these comb fragments, and this whetstone piece.
As expected there were a number of oil lamp fragments both of the glass bulbs, and the brass wick holders. These found during the weekend bring the total to 15 from this dump since I recovered quite a few during the winter using the metal detector. Almost all were right at the surface so it seems they tossed the lamps last. There were also a good number of buckles including a couple of nice suspender examples.
One buckle stands out, and it's by far the oldest piece we found:
This gorgeous Artois show buckle has an intact silver finish with marking all around. The iron chape rusted away long ago and it looks like it was bent. The other star find of the weekend was another NY State Excelsior button is fantastic condition!
Just a little lemon juice and it looks like it was lost yesterday! The last photo is this one reunited with the other after well over 100 years. I was really hoping we'd find a whole uniform's worth, but even two is incredible. However as amazing as pulling that out the ground was; this really took the cake:
This is a NYSFA (New York State Firemen's Association) 15th Annual Convention Delegate's medal. It's dated 1888 and took place in Cortland NY which is a fair distance from here. It took some time to find a match online and the only one I could find with a photo is misidentified as 1886. The organization was founded in 1872 and it looks like they had conventions each year in different NY towns. If my research is correct the NYSFA became the FASNY which actually has a museum dedicated to firefighting in Hudson NY which is fairly close to here. I'm hoping I can get more information from them and perhaps even a list of attendees from those early conventions to match this medal to its owner. In any case; it helped identify this mystery piece from the pit:
It's been suggested that it's an internal piece of an antique hose nozzle designed to broaden out the spray. If so I wonder if he got it at the convention or if it was broken at the local firehouse. At any rate, there's tons more research to be done.
This was an incredible experience and it's far from over. It's going to a lot more work to clear, but the cellar hole is next on the list and I'm hoping that that produces more of the older relics that I expected to find. I'm also confident that this wasn't the only dump on the property and that there's an older pit waiting to be found nearby. Fingers crossed that I'll have lots more interesting relics to post!
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