Here is my dump digging
tale! My name is Jeff and a friend Steve and I went off one Saturday to relocate a dump site he had visited is his youth. We hiked through a field and through briars and finally hit the woods. We scouted the lower area in the
woods, myself knowing if anything was upstream I would surelu see some evidence of broken glass or old decaying cans.Steve pointed out that him and a brother had dug the dump in their teens and that a cork Clorox and 1920's
Cokes were pulled out. I myself was wanted to find older bottles.
We walked down the ravine and covered the entire area. Steve pointed out the dump site finally and he was sharing with me the memories of the last time he had been
to the dump. The dump had a mixture of 1920's 30's bottles and noticing the other clues such as old license plates dated in the early 40's and certain types of bottles told me it was a dump that had been used durning several
decades. Its layers had been previously disturbed so the layers were not true!
We dug the dump for several weeks (not everyday) and throughout the weeks we would run accross a nice bottle every now and then. Then one day Steve
mentioned that he had located another area nearby that had some broken Milks. There weee days that we were not able to dig together because of our shifts being different. I went down to the dump and found the area he had found. I
raked back the area and located bottles that were covered by clay from where erosion of the soil occurred. I was finding nothing but corkers, old medicines, embossed sodas, and some broken pieces of BIM bottles lots with nothing
embossed on them.
Then some days later I returned to the main dump area and began digging at the head of the dump and dug until I hit the RED Carolina CLAY. Once I did I noticed that my rake had made the infamous CLINK sound it
hit glass. I raked back more clay and just kept hitting bottles left and right! It was strange to say the least. I have never found anything like it before. Always when digging a dump I have found the bottom and once you hit the
clay the bottles would end, but here it was very wierd.
I wish I had had a camera to take a couple of pics of it. Some of the bottles were like lying on top of one another and nothing but CORKS and embossed sodas. We continued
over the next several days digging out this area and all total I know I pulled out over a hundred cork bottles and sodas. These bottles were from the early 20th or late 19th
century. I found a nice flask but as in everything you cannot WIN them all, it was broken on the botton of it missing the whole base of it. I kept it anyway as to know what I want to find somewhere down the road. It was a great place and now I am very much spoiled to the fact that a 40's or 50's dump just does not hold much excitement any more. I want the BIG dumps now after having tasted the fruits of the labor.
The only thing I did not like about the Clay finds were that my clothes wee always red and muddy after digging in there. But I would do it again in a heart beat to recover what I did!
My guess is that the dump site was
originally a 20's dump and sometime during its first dumping a wash out occurred and covered the old dump wirh erosion from the higher areas of soil. Then the later bottles were dumped on top of the red clay and with My never say
die attitude I just had a feeling to dig more and it panned out!
Thanks, Jeff
