This is a revised copy of the post that Blake Peterson sent to me a few days ago. I jumped the gun and posted the rough draft instead of the finished product. My apologies to Blake. He has added additional text and several pictures that I left out of the rough draft. Enjoy!
Lost
In a Time Capsule for Over One Hundred & Forty Years
By Blake
Peterson
In the early 1870’s, Eureka Nevada
was growing towards what it was to become, another of Nevada’s great mining
towns. The first smelting plant built in 1869, was a failure. But
another, built in the 1870’s, was far more successful and the very forerunner
of even more advanced methods. Soon, the nearby hillsides of Eureka ranked as
Nevada's second-richest mineral producer (behind the Comstock Lode),
particularly for lead, with small amounts of silver. By 1874, the
population of Eureka was nearly 6,000 people.
On the morning of July 24th
1874, came a cloud burst that covered the entire canyons and mountains
surrounding the town of Eureka. By mid afternoon, a tragic flood came down the
canyon, destroying and carrying with it most all of the town’s buildings
in the canyon bottom. Two years later on July 24th 1876, a second
flood hit. Luckily, the town didn’t receive the extent of damage caused by the
first flood. https:// Eureka, Nevada: A Tragic
Flood
Eureka and the surrounding mining
communities have seen more than their shares of bottle diggers. Both local
residents and collectors from the surrounding western states have dug it hard
since the 1950’s. Today, after all the years of digging, there is very little
left that’s un-dug.
Some opportunities in life may
present themselves but only once. This dig is possibly one of those. The
property was temporarily vacant. The owner is a very close friend, and gave us
permission to dig. And last, the fact that John, Phil, Dan and I were able to
take time away from work to dig.
We spent nearly eight hours every
day for a period of two weeks digging this lot. We were getting close to
completing a thorough search of the property when, on a cold and windy April
fool’s day, a cellar or possibly a basement was discovered. The room had been
filled in level many decades ago and was discovered on the back corner of the
lot near the creek channel. It was approximately ten feet wide, twelve feet long,
and over eight feet deep. On the bottom was a hard silt layer over eighteen
inches thick, which had washed in from the first flood. (Through-out the lower properties
of town, It’s common to find a silt layer in all holes that were dug before the
1874 flood.) Above that was a sand and gravel layer from possibly the second
flood, then rocks and filled material to the surface.
There was very little trash in the
fill to the surface of this cellar, just a few bottles and some trash from the
mid-1870’s in the sand and gravel layer. But under the silt layer on the bottom
contained the real treasure. Along the wall from a doorway that exited toward
the creek to the North wall and across the floor toward the center, were full
bottles and demijohns of wine and bitters laying on their sides. Many were side
by side touching each other; others were up into the silt as if moved around by
the turbulence of the flood waters.
After being preserved in the silt
of a cool cellar for over 140 years, we recovered six embossed Dr HENLEY’S
WILD GRAPE ROOT IXL BITTERS bottles (variant 2 & 3), all with contents.
Three IXL bottles are full up into the neck; the other four appear to have been
opened with some contents removed, or possibly the cork failed and some
contents escaped. . Four additional IXL’s weren’t so lucky and were broken
under the weight of big rocks.
Theirs was a lime green very crude
un-embossed bottle with the same shape and size as an embossed IXL in the
cellar, also corked with full contents up into the neck. I say was, because we
cleaned & removed the cork, poured a few shots, and had a taste while
dividing the bottles. It is very pleasant and flavorful. This bottle with
contents has gotten a new cork and is being stored for future tasting, along
with the wines and IXL bitters in a nice cool wine cellar.
There were a half dozen bottles of
wine with full contents buried in the silt. The demijohns weren’t quite so
fortunate—they were still corked but empty, and were cracked and broken in
place. The silt which was set up hard as stiff clay, held the demijohn bottle together.
We recovered over
five hundred intact bottles on this dig, with about two thirds of them being
collectable bottles. Besides the bitters, there are whiskies, sodas, inks,
patent medicines, pharmacy bottles, and food containers. Its fun to complete a
dig and have enough quality bottles to see everyone involved walk away happy
and content with their selection from the pick.
The green & empty
IXL bottles on the left were dug separate from the cellar. In the next roe are
the six from the cellar. From the left, between first & second IXL bottles
with contents, in the third roe is the green un-embossed IXL shaped bottle with
contents, along with the full wine bottles
Two IXL’s from the picture above after washing,
picture taken in natural sunlight.
Thanks Blake for this fantastic post!
