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blobbottlebob
USA
1249 Posts |
 Posted - 04 Sep 2008 : 21:27:44
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Here is a story I had written early in the year. I think I promised on the home page that it was coming soon. I submitted it but it has been in limbo ever since. Well, here it finally is. If you guys give me some feedback, I''l post the second story that is waiting as well. Thanks, Bob
My First Clay
There’s something about an antique clay bottle that says ‘primitive’ or pre-historic’. You can imagine cro-magnan man packing some mud into a functional vessel. Then he would set it into the fire to bake and harden. Okay. Maybe the bottles we find aren’t that old, but they sure look like it sometimes.
Steve and I began collecting bottles by finding them while scuba diving. We had never found a clay bottle back then. We wanted to locate an old town where we could dive and with some luck, find antique bottles. We picked Watertown, Wisconsin on the Rock River. Nowadays, it is not a big town. (The 2000 census has the population under 22,000). In the late 1800s, though, it was booming. With that boom came people. With enough people, bottlers appeared. Watertown has many known varieties of beautiful and unique old bottles.
At this time in our diving careers, neither Steve nor I had any river diving experience. You could probably assume that there would be more current to deal with. (And there was). We weren’t fully prepared for the color of the water, though. On a winter day, when the flow is reluctant and the particulate has frozen off, there is a small amount of visibility. In summer, after a rain, forget it. The water has a brownish hue (maybe from tannic acid?). When you sink down, the measure of your depth can be calibrated by the amount of light shining into the water. As your mask enters, it’s like looking through coffee. The deeper you go, the darker it gets. If you can find an area ten feet deep on the riverbed, it’s like being in a closet, at night, with the lights out. Blacker than black. When you surface, sunshine feels like standing directly in front of a blazing search light. If you are shallower, sometimes you can make out light / dark contrasts; sometimes not.
The next thing to get ready for is the debris and detritus. There are poles, and bicycles, and fences, and branches. Mix in the lowered visibility with the current and you have a recipe for increased danger. With that danger, you need to heighten your level of diligence to keep untangled and unfettered from the surface. One day, I looked upstream and heard a “CLUNK”. I knew that I had hit something and that I was impeded, but I didn’t know what it was. Upon careful inspection, I could barely make out a metal pole that hit my mask RIGHT BETWEEN MY EYES. How’s that for visibility?
So, Steve and I began some winter dives in the Rock River. (It was February). We searched up and down trying different areas; around bridges, dams, and parks. We found bowling balls, ice skates, and a few old bottles but really nothing good. We had spent three day-trips out there and at least 5 tanks apiece. We were approaching the point where we were either going to find something great or we were going to stop coming here. People told us that there had been a dam repair a few years earlier. When the water level was down, collectors came and looked for bottles. This was discouraging news.
We planned one last tank. We parked along the side of the river. We both agreed that we would search that area right in front of us for a little while and then come right back if nothing turned up. Then we would pack it up and head home. We should know within 5 to 10 minutes if there was anything to find. We suited up and jumped in. It wasn’t going to take five or ten minutes to rule out this spot. It was a mud hole. You could spend a long time digging through several feet of soft squishy mud only to return with your earlobes packed full of the grime. (I know, I’ve done it).
Then something strange happened. I swam out and away from the shoreline. Steve swam out and away from the shoreline. Neither of us knew the other was doing it. Neither of us followed our pre-dive plan. When we reached the other side, things immediately seemed better. There were old crown bottles with badgers pictured on them. There was broken glass all over.
Steve, as usual, finished his tank before me. I was a bit downstream of him. He came over and showed me an 1870s soda that he’d found missing the bottom. It retained the Putnam stopper. He also had a hutch with a badger on it! He then told me to move upstream a bit. I thought that I was in a reasonably good area, but I hadn’t gotten any whiff of the 1870s. So, I tried it.
As I sank down, I thought I saw something. It was light colored. Lighter than the bottom, anyway. I pictured a milk bottle. Maybe a milk glass colored milk bottle. That’s got to be rare, you’d think. I picked it up and began to surface. As the darkness lightened, I saw a banner. It was a banner that was stamped in (or debossed into) a clay bottle. In fact, it was a beer bottle made out of pottery. This thing was early! Probably cro-magnan!
I showed it to Steve who was awed. Once again, Steve helped me to be in the right spot. Thanks again, Steve. The bottle is impressed “F SCHWARZ / MILWAUKEE” The company operated between the years of 1859 and 1864 in Milwaukee. That means that this bottle first was used in the Civil War era!
It’s curious how this example wound up in the Watertown area. Did someone take it with them on a stagecoach ride and chuck it in the river? From experience now, I can say that it does seem that bottles often turn up in a different town from where they were made. Most of these were returnable and would have been returned had they not ventured too far from their hometown.
That is not what happened to F. Schwarz, though. There is mounting evidence that suggests that Mr. Schwarz took his bottling business from Milwaukee to Watertown. Wayne Kroll, legendary author of Badger Breweries Past and Present (1979) notes,
“It appears that Fred Schwarz moved to Watertown from Milwaukee. He had operated a brewery in Milwaukee with Louis Liebscher from 1859-1864. A Schwarz pottery beer (No. 563) was recently found in Watertown.” (page 133). “Hi Wayne” if you see this!
Then we have my clay find. Another friend named Gary found one there. And from the cover of the home page of www.mrbottles.com (in March of 2008), we learned that some sisters found over a dozen of them in an old Watertown schoolhouse. I think the evidence is “IN”. F. Schwarz was basically a Watertown bottler in the 1860s who continued to use his Milwaukee bottle stock. I am glad that he did. It gave me the opportunity to find my first clay. |
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blobbottlebob
USA
1249 Posts |
Posted - 04 Sep 2008 : 21:31:45
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Here's what it looks like . . .
Image Attachment: 100_5694.jpg (32.47 KB)
Uploaded on 9/4/2008 9:31:32 PM
Viewed 82 time(s).
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Tony14
USA
830 Posts |
Posted - 07 Sep 2008 : 02:09:39
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| Definately a good one bob =] |
Tony Gruber
Looking for any bottle from Fond du Lac or any Wisconsin druggist/med. |
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blobbottlebob
USA
1249 Posts |
Posted - 07 Sep 2008 : 03:51:21
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| Thanks man. It was fun. I haven't been back in years. |
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GEEMAN
93 Posts |
Posted - 07 Sep 2008 : 07:18:30
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| Nice read Bob. Did that by chance come from the old mill race? |
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blobbottlebob
USA
1249 Posts |
Posted - 07 Sep 2008 : 11:01:27
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| Thanks Geeman. What's the old mill race? |
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GEEMAN
93 Posts |
Posted - 07 Sep 2008 : 20:12:03
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In case you didn't know what a mill race is.A mill race channeled water to and or from a water wheel.
There is a channel on the west side of the river in town (Just above the Milwaukee Street? bridge)a short way down from the lower dam that I was told was an old mill race. We used to snag Carp and Buffalo there years ago. Anyways,there is an old factory or mill of some sorts (converted into appartments or condos now)there that may very well have used water as a power source back in the day.
Further down from there I found an old mill stone laying in the river close to shore. Since it wasn't a BIG one I always had it in the back of my mind that I would go retrieve it one day. I never did and since it's in an out of the way place I imagine it's still there. |
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blobbottlebob
USA
1249 Posts |
Posted - 08 Sep 2008 : 00:26:16
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Cool. Based on your description, I don't think that we went anywhere near the place. Maybe somebody should!
How big is a not very big mill stone? |
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GEEMAN
93 Posts |
Posted - 08 Sep 2008 : 13:08:51
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Yeah, a not very big millstone leaves a lot to be desired description wise I suppose. LOL
This was a good 20 years ago but I'm thinking it was a little bigger than the diameter of a manhole cover. I remember first seeing it and thinking it was a chunk of concrete that once held a street sign but after a closer look it was an old millstone. It would have been a little work to get it out but I'm sure 2-3 guys with some rope could have gotten it out.
Before the city made a nice park/river walk and whoever converted the old factory into condos came along that stretch of river was a real crap hole. There was trash,old tires,busted glass,rusted metal,brush and what not all over down there. It was a pretty unsightly place to spend much time at except that fishing could be pretty decent at certain times of the year.
A lot has changed there since the big clean up though. Whether it would pay to dive there or not? I couldn't say. SURELY stuff got tossed in the water there back in the day but that's a pretty shallow stretch of river through there so low water might present a problem?
Next time I head to Watertown I think I'll snoop around down there a little. It's worth a shot. |
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blobbottlebob
USA
1249 Posts |
Posted - 09 Sep 2008 : 01:08:37
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Tom (and his buddy) are living proof that depth doesn't matter much. They found an unbelievable bottle in a foot or two of water this summer. It might kill the scuba gear but you can put a mask on and look for stuff by floating around.
Sometimes getting realy heavy stuff out is not easy. I remember one time my buddy Jim and I were diving and I found a five gallon milk or oil drum. Someone had filled it with concrete and used it as an anchor. Great idea right? Well that thing went down once and never came up again. It was not far from a pier and I dragged it to the base of this pier knowing that I could find it after I got out. It took a rope, me pushing from the water while Jim pulled, then I had to jump up quick before he broke a blood vessel and then two of us pulled it up from the pier. It was brutal but the thing had a brass tag which was pretty cool. |
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GEEMAN
93 Posts |
Posted - 11 Sep 2008 : 11:37:33
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Yeah,there's no doubt that stone would have been a chore to drag out of the river. I had a plan in mind which I believe would still work involving a come along - hand operated winch. Could have winched that thing right up the bank a few feet at a time I think. It would take a while but it could be done. The real trick would be loading it into the back of the pickup once a guy got it up the river bank.
Through the years I have thought of that millstone every now and then. Each time I do the wheels start creaking in my brain on whether I should take a crack at retrieving it (IF it's still there) or just leave it for the next person who appreciates old things like that. After 20 odd years or so I'd say the chances that stone stays in the river are pretty good. LOL |
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blobbottlebob
USA
1249 Posts |
Posted - 11 Sep 2008 : 23:11:57
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| It's gonna take some stones to remove that stone for sure. Maybe it could be rolled to shore from the water. I have been able to manage that with a large and heavy metal gear. Once, Steve took an outboard motor (50 horse?) and dragged it from about 60 feet deep all the way to an island one foot at a time. |
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GEEMAN
93 Posts |
Posted - 21 Sep 2008 : 07:27:03
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re: stones No doubt! LOL
Can't imagine lugging a 50hp motor across the bottom of a lake.My 9.9 and 20Hondas give me all I care to handle when I have to move them. However, motors are a pretty pricey item = plenty of motivation should one lose/find one.
We had a rain day (no work) last week Thurs so I took a spin to Watertown to check out some antique shops and the mill race. The abandoned old factory/mill is now called Mill Race Terrace - appartments. I only got out to look at the race from the far shoreline due to heavy rain but it appears it wouldn't be too tough to access. The race is longer than I remembered as well. |
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As promised a new hunt story
