DIGGING IN THE WATER
There is a large area in SLC that was used as a dumping ground in the 1890s through 1920 and we would routinely patrol the area looking for signs of old garbage. We approached an irrigation canal in a field and noticed it had recently been dredged and better yet, glass was coming out of dredgings! Of course, we dropped everything and had to check it out. I was 17 and had 2 other friends who also dug with me. The canal was 2 blocks off the main drag with an empty field on the north side and sure enough, mud on the banks had OLD glass. There was someone in the ditch pulling out glass as well. So, we pulled out our trusty shovels and began to dig on the muddy side of the bank. After about 4 feet we started to hit an undisturbed layer heading downward finding some old scotch whiskey bottles (we called them man’s legs) which were pretty exciting for us and then about 2 feet deeper, we hit water.
We continued to dig carefully, reaching down into the murky depths. I was finding this and that and then my friend said, “wait, I am feeling a blob top…. now I am feeling a shoulder seal, it’s big!...it has embossing all up the side!” He was still working on it and I had never heard of anything like that so we all had to drop what we were doing and watch. He finally jiggled it loose and pulled out this……. Our jaws dropped. It was the most wonderful thing I had seen, and it came out shiny clean. One of the high school correspondents did an article on me at the time. In the photo you can see where the water started.
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The dump wasn’t large, maybe 200 ft square and the top had been mostly dug down to the water level. So, we spent the next year sinking holes and going a few feet deep into the water with some success. My friends lost interest, but we never hit the bottom. Since the water was the problem, undaunted, I decided to get a pump. It cost me $125 at the time which was quite an investment for a high school senior. I decided I was going to find the bottom so I purchased 15 feet of hose with a homemade filter attached and a new gas can and some big rubber boots from K Mart. Below is my digging outfit. For the next three years I spent my weekends digging in the water as I continued school. I would get it down as far as my boots would go and then start the pump. The water came in fast and would fill the hole back up in a matter of minutes, so it was an interesting challenge. My early finds were enough to keep me motivated.
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But once that wall was exposed, it was full of wonderful things and usually multiples. For example, I found 3 hair vigors one day. There was a layer of tar paper that had been discarderd about 2 inches thick. Someone had discarded a whole load of Dr Abernathy’s Green Ginger Brandy from California that had rolled down the tar paper. Many were broken but I found a dozen whole.
Going deeper was a mixed-up mess. I would find a very old bottle next to one that was machine made. It was like the dump had been churned all around. In any case there was plenty to do. The dump continued to drop and some days I would be in 6 feet of undug wall. I found my first demijohn and a huge Kodak. I would have to crawl out of the hole and fill the pump with gas while it was running so it would keep up.
It wasn’t the most pleasant experience. The water coming in was black and smelled horrible. Much of it seeped through my gloves and would stain my hands. I probably should have gotten a horrible disease, but I was young and indestructible. My poor grandmother had to wash my clothes by soaking them in a tub first before letting them in the washer. Looking back, I am amazed what we did for a bunch of hundred-year-old garbage. |
Most of my previous digging was mid to late 1890s. I hadn’t experienced the early stuff. In the water I was starting to find some very old stuff. I found four crazy old bitters shaped bottles with no embossing. I pulled out a reeds bitters with a broken neck, a Dyottville whiskey, Salt Lake Brewing and stuff from the 1870s and then some newer stuff in the same place. I decided the dump was a deep pit that had been dug and was full of water, so people started to dump in it early and continued for years. The bottles would float and mix up and eventually settle. I could only move a few feet each time before it caved in, so it was slow but steady digging. Much of what I found redefined my collection and sent me in many different directions. Despite the effort, I always felt it was worthwhile.
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My school was ending, and life was moving on. I had left the hole uncovered down to the water and on my last dig there, the pump sat on the very edge of the hole and all 15 feet of the hose was hanging down and it was still going down. I had a good day and was going to go back. During the week some inexperienced diggers scraped all of the loose stuff into my deep hole looking for stuff on the top. It was filled with loose mud like I had never been there. I wished for a backhoe. That is when I decide to give it up. I did visit it a year later and it had become a mobile home park. I bet they never found the bottom either!