Posted 12 years ago
angry-gary
(1 item)
Hello,
I am new here and would like to show some signs we dug out of an old town dump in New York this past weekend. My wife and i dig old bar dumps, house dumps, hunting camp dumps etc., for old beer cans and milk bottles. We have doing this for the past 15 years and have dug in over a dozen states. Two years ago we went on a two week digging trip through Alaska.
Anyways we were digging in the western part of the Catskills in New York. we stumbled on a rather large and what appears to be a forgotten old town dump. It is over a steep enbankment and runs almost 300 yards long. In a little over an hour digging we found these four porcelain signs and many milk bottles. the Socony sign is a two sided porclain. the United cigar signs were bolted back to back on an angle iron frame.
does any one have any idea of approximate age? the beer cans in the immediate area were late 40's. but beercans are discarded right after consuming and these signs had to be hanging for years before they were tossed out.
Awesome find!
The Coca-Cola sign is from the 1930's , I guessing the Socony is probably around that era as well, Very Nice digging !!!!!
Thanks guys! We live in Virginia and can't wait to get back up to NY to dig some more. we also brought home some Buffalo restaurant ware china and a couple metal milk bottle carriers. Unfortunaely the beer cans we brought home and cleaned all turned out to be national brands.
How do you go about finding places to dig?
we use old topo maps from the 30' and 40's,(which is when beer cans were first canned-1935) we look for older establishments like dance halls, bars, gas stations old hotels. then we compare them to modern maps and look that they no longer exist. usually the roads have been relocated and the places become "off the beaten path", then they close down.
when we find what is left of the place, and usually it is only a foundation and sometimes the old building id collapsed. we will check the woods behind the place for where they would have dumped their trash. usually a ravine or depression. if we find it we will dig it. sometimes the dump will be across the road or down the road a ways. we look for old "two- tracks", roads through the woods where they would drive a pick up truck and dump their trash.
the problem with digging in NY is the state went on a very strong effort to find these massive old dumps and they will cover them up and then replant pines on top. when you find level areas with rows of pines you know the state was there and any remnants of the dumps will buried 10 feet deep.
also we look for old hunting cabins because they were mainly used by people seasonally and from other parts of the country. which means they brought in everything they would need for the weekend or for the week. usually canned beer, food etc.
when it came time to leave and travel home they would dump their refuse in the nearest ravine. this makes for easy finds.
one of our favorite things are old restaurant dumps. here they would throw out everything from the place, beer cans china, silverware etc. you can always bring home some unbroken china. i will show some picture.
this description is really just a nut shell of the process.
can i attached pictures to an existing post?
That's awesome and sounds like a lot of fun. I don't think you can attach pictures, but I'm not sure. I think you're limited to the four on top.
maybe i will post pictures in a new post in restaurant ware