By Maurice Kenny
If you drive by Bovaird and Airport intersection you will see just another commercial plaza, surrounded by new housing. Back in 1996 I noticed the property was unoccupied and city by law proposal signs had been posted. It would only be a matter of time before the land would be redeveloped.
By Maurice Kenny
There was clumps of metal, broken glass all trapped in amongst vine roots and little popular trees. I ripped a whole bunch loose and then set about looking through it all. I ignored what had first appeared to be a brick. When I got around to pulling out and tossing this brick I went into shock to see it was a stone bottle.
by Maurice Kenny
My digging had now brought me to the edge of the dump that was not visible and past diggers appeared to have stopped because of the depth and amount of clay cap that covered it. My next batch of finds got me digging with more vigor:
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by Barrett Nicpon
In the moment immediately following the unveiling of the ginger beer, I still had no idea what marking the piece possessed, if any. The wet dark soil clung to the piece desperately as I quickly rolled it over looking for any of that tell-tale black ink.
by Barrett Nicpon
Through this astonishing display at having found one of the rarest of the Strathroy, Ontario bottles, we completely forgot that the piece was broken off at the lip. "It's broken!" Kyle then shouted, suddenly returning to reality. "It's still an amber Bixel, man," I said, "where there's one, there's bound to be more."
by Barrett Nicpon
We had left off having unearthed a seriously large (6 by 10 foot) square yellow brick wall, only about two bricks deep, and set about 4" under the ground. We were confused as to what the short, crudely made wall was, but we were going to dig to find out.
by Barrett Nicpon
Every bottle collector born any time after 1980 (myself and my co-digger, Kyle, included) tends to hear, at every bottle club meeting, show, communal dig, house call, luncheon, box social, etc., about these legendary “factory dump” digs from way back when.
by Barrett Nicpon
Glancing off into the darkness of the crawl space behind the steps of the basement, I could see the glitter of glass fragments amongst the sand, and I just knew there was something up there. Jim had a utility halogen light in his truck, and ran to get it while Kyle & I discussed the ridiculous possibilities.
by Barrett Nicpon
I ran to see what Jim had turned up, and was surprised... but not too surprised. 4 large shards from an even larger yellow earthenware crock were lying atop his pile of dirt, and 3 bottles with their necks broken off were scattered about - one J. Tune, and two R. Taylor quarts.
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by Barrett Nicpon
And then, something beautiful to my eyes occurred. My father wandered up along the front of the driveway, dressed in dirty jeans and a plaid jacket, ready to dig, and asked "How's it going, boys?" I believe I felt a tear come to my eye at that moment, as I knew that my father had become a bottle digger.
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by Barrett Nicpon
It was full of dirt, so to lighten it up a bit, I shook it out onto the pile of dirt on the tarp, and, much to my surprise, out came a small bottle! Picking it up, I was once again elated to read the embossing “W.H.STEPLER / STRATHROY, ONT”.
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by Darren Spindler
On this day Brampton and Strathroy diggers teamed up to tackle a hill side dump on a beautiful late October afternoon. Maurice and I made an earlier stop by the Cambridge Bottle Show to check out the available wares and make some new connections before we met up with Barrett & Kyle at Tim's.
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by Darren Spindler
Over the years I have had chance to dig some really great sites which have produced interesting and rare finds. Although I am not digging as much as I once did (hence the lack of stories on my part), diggers like Barrett Nicpon & Kyle Waters have been generous in posting their stories for all to read.
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by Maurice Kenny
Maurice found some time to get a dig in at one of his well-worked holes which produced a couple of unmarked ginger beers and a nameless hutch soda. The two ginger beers are in good condition with no markings not even a manufacturers stamp, but they still look great!
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by Darren Spindler
I wasn't expecting to find anything that high up and was digging like a madman when a clear "Dr. E.E. Burnside's Purifico" from Ashville, New York appeared in the roof of the hole. If I had leaned into the swing any more I would have cut it in half.
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by Darren Spindler
I missed this dig too! But as you can see there are still some good bottles to be dug. Maurice found more sodas on this day.
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by Darren Spindler
I was unable to join Maurice for our club dig as I finally caught a cold that I had managed to dodge for a couple of weeks. Anyway here is how everybody else's day went.
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by Maurice Kenny
This was Darren's and my first visit to this 1900-1920 dump. Upon learning of its location and the fact that Darren had a Monday off work, we paid a visit.
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