About two years ago, we had a discussion about collectors and their
methods. One of my complaints about the discussion was that we were
making a great many assumptions about collectors, so I prepared a survey
and passed it out at New Mexico's only bottle show — then shared the
results with the list.
About a year ago, we again discussed collectors, this time their
methods, and I volunteered to observe a dig to see first hand whether
there would be anything to learn from it. The idea was similar to the
reasons espoused by archaeologists who accompany the treasure hunting
expeditions.
I finally had the opportunity, and the report appears below. It is a
bit lengthy, but (I hope) worth your while to read.
Bill Lockhart
The Bottle Dig, or How I Spent My Summer Vacation
Background
About three years ago, we had an involved discussion on the
HISTARCH listserve about
bottle collectors in general and specifically about bottle diggers. We
certainly have some
legitimate complaints about collectors, especially bottle diggers, and
they, I fear, have a few
legitimate complaints of their own, most notably that we claim to be
working for the public good
– but we then hide all the artifacts where the public can’t access
them. The discussion, of course,
went the way of most such – the True Believers (on any side) refused
to listen to anything but the
True opinion, and the middle-of-the-road majority shook its collective
head and stayed middle of
the road.
At that time, I created a survey and passed it around at the New
Mexico insulator and
bottle show at Albuquerque. The results were quite surprising to many
archaeologists. Among
those was the statement that many collectors never dug bottles at all,
and many others did so only
occasionally. In addition, almost all collectors surveyed were
involved in research of some kind.
I also proposed at that time that I attend a bottle dig to see
how it worked. I posited that
we should do some scientific testing to discern whether archaeologists
could learn anything
useful by monitoring a bottle dig – similar to the way that
archaeologists monitor treasure
hunting expeditions at sea. Since that time, I have always been
unavailable when the New
Mexico Historic Bottle Society had its digs. But my opportunity arose
in the summer of 2008.
The Bottle Dig
My wife, Wanda, and I arrived at our RV park in Hillsboro, New
Mexico, on May 30,
2008, the day before the dig was to commence. Our trailer is a
hardshell foldout, extending out
from a 19-foot-long box to a 26-foot living space with full bathroom,
kitchen, dinette, and two
queen-size beds. Unfortunately, while setting up, my back went out.
Hillsboro is nine winding
miles east of Kingston, the dig site.
I have had back problems for years, and, of course, it always
goes out at predicably
inconvenient times – usually weekends, when there are no
chiropractors available. We drove to
the 30 miles to Truth or Consequences, only to discover that the
town’s three chiropractors all
closed early on Fridays. The only good news was that a single
practitioner was going to be open
on Saturday from 9:00 to 10:00 AM.
This, of course, created a bit of a dilemma – the dig was
supposed to begin at 9:00 AM on
Saturday (May 31), and I wanted to be in on the early stages. However,
a desire to be pain free
(or at least have as little pain as possible) won, so we headed back to
T or C Saturday morning.
Day 1
Fortunately, the chiropractor saw me almost immediately, so we
were back in Kingston at
the Kingston Lodge by 10:00 AM. Pete, the co-owner of the lodge and an
additional 29 acres of
the original mining town, was still giving the club members a tour of
the place when we returned.
Members of the club were staying at the Lodge or at the house Pete
owned across the street.
About 20 club members and spouses (plus one adolescent) attended. A
gracious host, Pete told
the club members to “dig anywhere.”
Like all good tales, this one has a background story. Pete ,
co-owner of the Black Range
Lodge, has been renovating and innovating for the last ten years.
This, of course, required quite a
bit of excavation, mostly by backhoe. One day, he was digging a trench
with his backhoe and
saw a bottle roll down the backdirt pile and klunk up against a rock at
the base. He rolled off the
machine and examined the bottle. It was OK, and he took it into the
Lodge and displayed it with
a growing collection of other bottles, interesting rocks, and various
additional finds from the
area.
Last year, New Mexico Magazine published a story about the Lodge
and included a photo
of the bottle. Zang Wood, one of the bottle club members and one of
the most knowledgeable
people in the state about New Mexico Hutchinson soda bottles, took one
look at the photo and
called Pete. It turns out that the bottle, embossed “BLACK,RANGE,
SODA CO. / NEW
MEXICO” (yes, the commas are on the bottle) was the only one of its
kind known so far. Zang
called Pete then called the club president. Soon it was all arranged
– the club would go to the
Black Range Lodge for its next dig.
The club members had unique individual styles. One man (Duane)
and his son, Evan,
immediately began to dig at the base of a tree at the edge of the front
parking lot. By 1:00 PM,
they had reached a depth of ca. two feet and were beginning to find
export beer bottle fragments.
Bases with S. McKEE & Co and WIS GLASS Co. I told him that the
Wisconsin Glass Co. was
only in business between 1881 and 1886, indicating a probable 1880s
range for the site. McKee
was in business too long to be helpful (1834-ca. 1908).
Another began probing ca. 60 m. away, behind the old bank, one
of the few buildings
remaining from the mining heyday of the town. I had erroneously
thought that probes were to
detect bottles, but Mike informed me that he was looking for a soft
place – the location of the
privy. He eventually found a soft place, but it turned out to be an
ash pit with no bottles. He
refilled the hole and continued looking.
We followed another prober who kept looking at the end of the
probe and wiping it off.
We asked why, and he replied that he was looking for ashes or organic
material – possible signs
of privies or trash dumps. When we asked if he looked in any specific
places, he replied that the
most likely places were along fence rows behind houses or businesses.
Although these probes come in a variety of types and sizes, they
all have one thing in
common – their “T” shape. The actual probe part is a long,
narrow rod that varies in length but
averages ca. four feet long and can be between ½" to 1" in diameter.
The handle that forms the
“T” is ca. 12-18" long. The probers repeatedly thrust the probe
into the ground, seeking soft
spots.
A second detection tool seen rarely but increasingly at
archaeological investigations is the
metal detector. These are used to check for buttons, coins, or other
miscellaneous metal artifacts
that may be close to the surface. The collector with his or her
detector usually also carries a tool
belt with a small shovel, and three-pronged scratcher, and/or a small
hoe to facilitate the removal
of each discovery.
The entire group of a dozen or so was interested in virtually
anything having to do with
history. The lady who ran the town museum opened it, and the
collectors toured in small groups
of three to five. They were most interested in bottles (of course) and
historical photos, especially
those of the bank and surrounding buildings. Eventually, they figured
that the area in front of the
Lodge was the location of the former Long Branch Saloon, explaining the
presence of the beer
bottles at the base of the tree. A lady named Pat began digging just
uphill from the tree where
Duane and Evan had begun digging earlier.
After probing some of the acreage and looking around the town,
the club broke into two
groups. One group sat around talking of other digs and bottles in
general, and Duane began a
new hole on the other side of the tree beside Pat. The total find in
Duane’s first hole was a
couple of dozen broken assayers’ crucibles, three complete export
beer bottles, and numerous
export beer fragments – all from a narrow layer ca. two feet below
the surface.
Of interest from an archaeological viewpoint, the basemarks on
the export beers included
“C / MILW” (the first mark used by the Chase Valley Glass Co. in
1880), CV No. 2 (Chase
Valley’s other mark 1880-1881), WIS GLASS Co. (1881-1886), A&DHC
(1860s-ca. 1891),
BGCo (1882-1886), and MGCo (1873-1884). This really narrows the
deposition to a ca.1880-ca.
1886 period. Although not found in the dig, Pete had also found at
least three export beer bottles
or bases in the same area, each bearing the OGCo monogram, an unusual
although not rare mark.
A complete bottle had the BGCO basemark with the serif on the
“G” extended to the right.
The two-part finish on the bottle had a sharp lower ring of the type
used between 1873 and ca.
1882. I reported this configuration on a base found at Fort Stanton
(Lockhart 2008). This is the
second time I have found this variation on a complete bottle, but the
one the Bottle Research
Group found at Fort Bowie had a rounded lower ring on the two-part
finish.
Everyone quit about 5:00, and the group discussed bottles and
digging stories until
supper. Several of them were angry at a local maverick digger, who is
(in their words) “giving
everybody a bad name.” This guy is the poster child for the digger
stereotype. He is banned
from several towns in New Mexico and all of Arizona for digging
illegally and was even caught
twice during the same day – the second time digging on land owned by
the deputy who arrested
him. One was so angry that he has threatened to kill the maverick, if
he ever returns to
Albuquerque! Wanda and I retired to the trailer after supper, while
the collectors watched
National Geographic videos about excavations.
Day 2 (June 1, 2008)
We arrived back at the Lodge ca. 10:00 AM to find that Duane had
finished digging at the
base of the tree and covered the hole. Meanwhile, Pat and Duane had
both continued digging
down from the top of the terrace (ca. two feet above the surface where
Duane began digging
yesterday) intending to dig down to the same level where Duane found
the beer bottles the day
before.
By this time, several of the club members had returned home, and
the only action was just
in front of the Lodge. I should note here that the temperatures were
in the high 90s both days,
and some of the folks from Arizona were complaining about the elevation
(7383 feet). There
might have been a great deal more activity, if the weather had been
cooler. After checking Pat’s
morning finds (nothing exciting), we examined various bottles that Pete
(the owner) had dug up
with his backhoe (of just shoveling out small foundations) over the
last decade. Everything had
manufacturer’s marks that suggested a ca. 1880-1886 date range.
Pat eventually found the ash layer that Duane had hit the day
before and began finding
lots of bottle glass. She found a complete export beer bottle embossed
“F.H.G.W” on the base.
Next to it was the bottle the club had come to find – the fabled
Black Range Hutch!
Unfortunately for Pat, the finish was broken off. However, the bottle
was identical to the one
Pete had found. The association with the beer bottles suggests that
the Black Range Co. was in
business during the ca. 1880-1886 period. The finding of a second
bottle in the same area
(within 50 meters of each other) also suggests that the bottles were
filled locally. A single bottle
could easily have been brought in from elsewhere.
The same hole produced a cut-glass goblet fragment, one complete
and dozens of
fragments from various sizes of assay crucibles, a single colorless
drug store bottle embossed
“MCC,” a complete British china bowl, several additional historical
ceramic pieces, and
numerous other bottle fragments, especially from export beer bottles.
Pat was so excited that she
would not break for lunch. After lunch, we said farewell to the ones
who were leaving and drove
back to our trailer for a nap. The hole played out early in the
afternoon, and everyone was
packing up when we returned. There were no new finds.
Discussion and Conclusions
Literally all of the people connected to the bottle club were
friendly and easy to get along
with. Some, like the geology professor, were absolutely fascinating.
They came from all walks
of life, from academics to store owners, to manual laborers, musicians,
and truck drivers.
Virtually the only common denominator was an interest in bottles.
Although there were a few
more men, the distribution of the sexes was fairly even.
A few had little interest in the history of the area (or the
bottles), but the vast majority had
already checked out the local history on internet and were full of
questions about the place. Only
a single person (the only person in the group under 18) began digging
before the two-hour-long
tour of the 33 acres was finished. I was beset by numerous questions
during the two days about
manufacturer’s marks and dates.
The actual digging technique was very different from the methods
we use in archaeology.
The holes are round, and the idea is to get to the “goodies” as
quickly as possible. However, they
also dig carefully, so as to not damage the bottles or other artifacts.
The shovels are round
points, unlike the square point shovels we traditionally use (except
for shovel testing).
One of the major differences in technique is tunneling. Once a
hole has reached the depth
where the bottle stratum lies, the shovels are discarded in favor of
three-pronged garden
“scratchers” that tend to pull out bottles without large clumps of
dirt. These are quite effective,
sifting out items as small as broken-off finishes from drug store
bottles – less than the size of a
quarter. The diggers then tunnel out in several directions, generally
only an arm’s length deep, to
find a maximum amount with a minimum of labor.
Periodically, some of the diggers screen a sample of the dirt
for smaller items like buttons
and coins. A few also scan the backdirt with metal detectors. One of
the others screened all the
dirt found around Pat’s Black Range Hutch in an attempt to find the
finish. I was surprised to
find that this group of collectors saved everything diagnostic. When I
asked why, they each
replied that they wanted to learn as much about the site as possible.
Of particular interest were the bottle digging stories told
during some of the breaks and in
the evening before supper. Most of the stories revolved around two New
Mexico/Arizona bottle
diggers. Everyone there agreed that these two gave bottle diggers a
bad name and that none of
them would ever dig with either of the mavericks (my term, not theirs)
again.
They consistently had two complaints about the mavericks. The
first was that they broke
the law and/or did not respect the property of the landowner. Each of
the club members at the
dig were adamant about obtaining permission from the owner, filling in
holes, and leaving things
clean when they left. One of the mavericks had been arrested numerous
times for trespass. He
was no longer even allowed to attend the annual bottle show, sponsored
by the club.
The second gripe was a lack of safety. One of the mavericks,
after obtaining permission
to dig in a side lot, tunneled under a business to get to an outhouse.
The owner heard the noise
from inside his store and chased the digger away. Two of the stories
told of last-second rescues
when the mavericks had tunneled so far that their tunnels collapsed.
One of the story tellers had
to grab the feet of one maverick and pull him out. The tunnel caved,
just as the maverick was
pulled out. At least two members of the group telling the stories had
each been partially buried
when the sides of their holes had collapsed.
Since the subject of collector greed has been a topic of
discussion on HISTARCH, I
thought that two instances of this dig were interesting. First, when
Pat found the Black Range
Hutchinson bottle with the broken finish (thereby greatly diminishing
the value of the container),
everyone rejoiced. Virtually everyone with a camera came over to take
her photo. It would be
hard to imagine a more enthusiastic response, if she had found a
complete (and, therefore, much
more valuable) bottle. For the rest of the day, people kept repeating
that the Black Range Hutch
made the whole trip worthwhile.
The second incident was when Zang asked Pete if he would sell
his Black Range Hutch.
Not knowing club policy, Pete said he needed to think about it
(although he was willing to sell
the bottle) and surreptitiously asked several of the club members what
he should do. Even
though possession of an “only” bottle (i.e., only one of its kind)
is both prestigious and
potentially lucrative, every single person whom Pete asked said that
Zang should be the owner
because Zang was one of the two the major Hutch collectors in New
Mexico (the other was not
present), was doing the most research on New Mexico Hutch bottles, and
therefore should be the
owner.
Finally, and most importantly, was I able to learn anything
useful from the experience?
Aside from an interesting session in observation research (I am also a
sociologist), the answer is
yes. The concentration of dates from manufacturer’s marks strongly
suggests that the dig area
was inhabited during the 1880-1886 period, consistent with the mining
strike in 1882 and the
rapid local population explosion that followed. Kingston, now
virtually a ghost town, swelled in
eight years to a city of 7,000. By 1890, it was New Mexico’s largest
city. When silver prices
declined by 90% during the panic of 1893, the town went into rapid
decay. This trash area was
only apparently used during the early period.
The finding of the Black Range Hutch in the same deposition also
dates the bottle and,
therefore, the company to the same period. Of more importance to me,
personally, the site also
helped date two other manufacturer’s marks that the Bottle Research
Group only had tentative,
long-range dates for. Along with all the 1880-1886 marks (in a context
with none of the known
later marks), there was an export beer bottle base embossed S. McKee &
Co. S. McKee & Co.
was in business between 1834 and 1908. Although not conclusive, this
helps narrow the date
considerably.
Pat found a full bottle with a sharp lower ring on the two-part
finish and a mark of
“BGCo” on the base. Toulouse (1971:26) attributed the mark to the
Belleville Glass Works, in
business from 1882 to 1886. Until recently, we questioned his
identification of “Co” with a
business ending in “Works.” The only other real contender for the
mark, however, was in
business for a much longer time (1880-1928). Three things have caused
us to reconsider and
agree with the Toulouse identification (at least until still more
evidence arises). First, the longer
date range did not work with an analysis of Fort Stanton beer bottles
– but the Belleville dates fit
perfectly (Lockhart 2008). Second, Tod Von Meechow discovered some
primary sources from
Belleville, calling the factory the Belleville Glass Company. Finally,
the date range at the Black
Range Lodge site fits the Belleville dates ideally. None of these
alone would cause us to change
or minds, but the combination of all three bits of information, coupled
with the Toulouse
identification, make the Belleville designation the best choice – at
least for now.
Of course, this only touches the positive side of the
collectors’ doings, and that was
intentional. I have not discussed the destruction of sites, the lack
of proveniance, lack of record
keeping, or any number of other issues. I suspect these will be
discussed in great detail in the
days that follow. I have also avoided in this report the controversy
over whether this constitutes
endorsement, and I suspect I will be judged according to how
individuals feel about that issue.
What we in the archaeological community have facing us in the
future is a dilemma – not
a problem. Problems have solutions; dilemmas are much more complicated
and must be
approached differently. Collectors are not going away, and we are not
likely to out-lobby them to
change the laws about private property. The big question is: do we
continue to exist as two
“armed” camps or do we discover some way to coexist.
I will probably repeat this observation exercise at least once
more to see if there is more
or less information to be learned in a different setting, for example,
in a trash dump.
Lockhart, Bill
2008 “Ten Wagon Loads of Beer Bottles.” Paper presented at
the 41st Conference Annual
Conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology, January 8-13,
2008, at Albuquerque,
New Mexico.
Bill Lockhart
Associate Professor of Sociology
New Mexico State University
Alamogordo, NM
(575) 439-3732
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