Non exciting finds

[Oz_IL]

There's a place in the Cook County Forest Preserves that used to be a nice place to fish years back but the dam busted and there hasn't been many people over since. Bottles galore, some perhaps going back to the 50's. Just snapped a shot - I think I ID'ed a Michelob Bottle(far right), Rolling Rock (green bottle in the back) and the soda bottle was easy as it has the name stamped on it (Vana, Inc.).

Again nothing exciting - I cleaned the bottles and will keep the Vana Inc, the rest go for recyling. I'll probably go back and get more, not to keep, but to have the place stop looking like a garbage dump

Hi Oz,

First of all I want to tell you how much I respect your interest in cleaning up the trash left at that site. This country needs more folks who think like you.

Second, you are probably right about keeping the embossed soda and recycling the rest. But do not count out the possibility that some of the bottles that you come across in this area may be of value to some collector. Chances are that if you have something someone collects it.

Happy hunting
HJ

[swizzle]

When did they originally put in the dam? Just because your finding bottles that date to the 1950's doesn't mean that there isn't an older spot on the lake. Walk around the edge of the lake and keep your eyes open for more glass. There will probably be a bigger concentration at the dam but there may be other spots as well. Get out an old map of the area and see if there was ever any camps or mills along the shore line. There may have been another dam farther upstream at one time as well. Old campsites can be overgrown and all but impossible to locate. Sometimes the only way to find them is the concentration of trash along or within the original lake level. If you own a metal detector now is the time to use it. Old bottles are often found along side of very trashy spots. If your detector keeps going off then its time to put it down and start digging. The older bottles might be covered with 150 years of silt and mud. Good luck and thanx for helping to clean up what appears to have been an old party spot. Swizzle

[Oz_IL]

The county dammed it up in the 1920's and I have no clue what was there before hand. Most of the immediate area didn't have camps or such, plus no digging on county property, so unless some old coin was sitting right on the surface MD'ing is useless (you can MD, just not dig ). About 60% of the bottles I did see were broken, I'm sure there are still hundreds out there waiting for a clean up, broken or not.

[swizzle]

I'm not sure about your location but I can type in "old maps new england" and a site for historical usgs maps pops up and the maps are free to view. Some of the maps date as far bback as the 1890's. You might also want to go to your local library and ask for the county atlas. They should have a very big, dusty book full of maps of every town, village and city in that area and some of these maps date back to the 1860's (late pontiled bottle era). Our local library allows you to bring in a camera to take pics of the maps but because of the age and fraility of the book they don't allow photocopying. Also look for books pretaining to the history of your hometown and the surrounding towns, villages, and cities that you are willing to drive to. If you have hiking trails in your area, look for hiking book(lets), maps ect of those areas. Sometimes a hiking book in its description of an area will give you info as to how far it is to a stone wall and where old settlements use to be. Hope this helps. Swizzle