Aug 2012 , "STOLEN" Antique Colorado Hutchinson Soda Bottle ,Found !

[PikesPeakCharlie]

July 1899 :

It was an abnormally hot night for the altitude of around 9.500 ft, in the gold mining town of Victor Colorado.

He stepped through the saloon's doors into the darkness,after spending the night sampleing the whiskey selection at the Brunswick Saloon ,on North 4th St. He leaned forward a little and staggered across the street between two buildings and turned right into the alley to head up the hill towards his cabin. He pulled up abruptly,and came to a stop,swaying from side to side with drunkiness, he leaned forward ,slowly,, awkwardly,, struggling to focus his eyes on a square object sitting in the shadows next to the building. Realization, slowly peneterated the fog of whiskey,,,, it was a case of full soda bottles,,, he looked slowly around, nobody was around ,but a dog diggin through the trash pit behind old man Simionton's general store.

" Nobodys gonna miss just one !" He thought to himself, as he silently slid one of the bottles from its case. He hurried up the alley with his ill gotten booty,so as not to get caught with the goods,,,so's to speak,,, he took a left down another alley, " the cabin is close now !" he stepped into the shadows,pushed down the stopper and took a drink of the soda , it tatsted good ,as he was thirsty. Finally ,the soda stealing miner, made it to his cabin,once inside he felll drunkenly on his bunk and begun to sleep off the effects of the whiskey.

In the morning,he awoke to a pounding head,and a parched throat.He pulled on his suspenders,grabbed the bottle of soda and headed out back to the privy. Sitting there,sipping on the soda bottle,his memory of the nights events slowly returned to him, he let out a small chuckle as he remembered ,ole Johnny got his nose broke by that BIG railroad worker,"guess he should not have gotten so mouthy with a man he did not know" . As he tipped up the bottle to take a drink,he remembered !! he had "stolen " it, a wave of guilt came over him, he stood up ,turned and threw the bottle down the privy hole " No one would ever find it there" The evidence was gone forever ! ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,

Flash forward ,113 years :

On an abnormally hot Aug morn , two brothers probing for privys on a friends empty lots on upper North 4 th St in Victor Colorado ,,,,,, The probe sinks to its handle,,,,, a half hour later ,the "stolen" bottle the miner threw down the old privy,,is pulled from the dirt and expossed to the sun for the first time in 113 years. They know it is the one the miner stole,,it says so right on the bottle !!!


I do have one question though ,,,, They knew it was stolen,,they kept it anyway ,,,, can they be charged with possesion of stolen property .

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[NOLA_Ken]

Ok, you win. I think that's the coolest embossing I've ever seen on an old bottle. Better check with the local law and make sure they don't want it as evidence though......

[TNGUNS]

Too cool

[allen]

What a beautiful bottle!!!

[Age_old]

Awesome! Love the little story

[SC Keith]

That is a beautiful bottle! historic and very interesting!

[stewielouie]

Nice hutch

[GaRebel1861]

I've got to say, you've got one hell of an imagination and a very nice bottle! I really liked the story.

[Gunrunner61]

Way to cool, Awesome story also...................HH

[curbdiggercarl57]

I remember walking out of a bar to catch a cab holding my Crown and Coke, sadly only in a plain rocks glass.
One of the coolest and cleanest bottles I've seen in a long time.
You're killing us up here in Denver, we've been digging the same repeatable common Hutches.
Carl
Great story by the way, written partially from experience, hmm...?

[PikesPeakCharlie]

Thanks for all the replies everyone !!!! just wanted to do something different,than just post , Hey I found this today ! Carl sometimes I think I still have "the fog" There are 2 varients of this hutch,and a amber crown cap beer with the same embossing,they are just some cool bottles !!

[ivan salis]

yep in the old days to prevent competiors from using your bottles to put their products in -- the soda bottlers retained "owernship" of their bottles --you could only buy the liquid within * the bottles however stayed theirs -- often folks wanted to carry off the bottles to drink later on at home or work --if so a "bottle deposit" was required to insure you returned the bottle to the store -- since the store owner had to pay the bottler a fee for any bottles he was short per case as they exchanged cases empty ones for full ---the " bottle deposit" covered the bottlers fine for a bottle being short from a case. (covering the replacement cost plus a few cents extra) normally the deposit was say 5 cents

if a adult was foolish or lazy enough to threw away a bottle -- the local kids would quite happily pick them up and bring them back to the store owner for "the deposit" to get candy money - a nickles worth of candy was a lot of candy back then.

odd to find a bottle that normally would have a deposit fee on it (thus worth money) --just dropped down a privy with it not being broken ==odd indeed.

[Catobra]

Thanks for the story, enjoyed it very much!

[ctalmadg]

Now that is where the name "Blob Top" came from!!!!

[jgas]

Hey Pikes, sorry I missed this one. What a great story. That was crazy kewl. That is a bad A@* hutch. Say, do you guys find them in clear glass all the time or what. Ours are usually aqua or an occasional cobalt. That puppy is clear as bell tho. Great embossing! Crazy how I think up these same types of stories when we find stuff too. Oh the history of it all. Man, I sure hope to secure this farm site we have been eyeballing all summer. Heres to hope and cool finds like that hutch!! Congrats buddy and once again great story. jgas

[thrillathahunt]

That sir, is one of the most well written stories I have read on t-net in a long time! Well done, and a beautiful bottle!

[Mrs Bloom]

Interesting and I enjoyed the story!

[umrgolf]

Awesome story and bottle!

[Southern_Digger]

Nice bottle. When a teenager (1969) family vacation to Colo. sent us to places such as Phantom Canyon; Cripple Creek and Victor. I recall the latter town, nearly evacuated and a few jobless people living there. It was rather depressing as was Cripple Creek back then. I did find an old, small Medicine in Cripple Creek and picked up some mine tailings nearby still bearing traces of gold. The reason we were there was because after my father served in the South Pacific during WW2, he wanted to get as far the way from the ocean as possible, for a while. He ended up working on a 1500 acre ranch located in Ute Pass and made a lifelong friendship with that family. The extensive ranch was on the west side of Pikes Peak and you drive along its northern and western property lines if you travel from Colo. Springs, thru Woodland Park and onward to Cripple Creek. I enjoyed the visit as we were invited to dine with them on homemade bread and Elk burgers. Not bad, I might add. In 1969, I explored an old mine cave on the ranch and used my inadequate Relco there. I also saw dad's old Model A still setting on a hill where he left it when it broke down-a family of chipmunks living under the hood... On the south border-National Forest where we camped, the Rangers allowed me to pan in the streams and I found color, although not much. It was a rememberable trip. Wife and I returned with our family in 1995 and much had changed. Ranch family had passed and status of ranch ownership is unknown-perhaps now park land. Of course, Cripple Creek became a casino and I never made it over to Victor.

[PikesPeakCharlie]

Hey Pikes, sorry I missed this one. What a great story. That was crazy kewl. That is a bad A@* hutch. Say, do you guys find them in clear glass all the time or what. Ours are usually aqua or an occasional cobalt. That puppy is clear as bell tho. Great embossing! Crazy how I think up these same types of stories when we find stuff too. Oh the history of it all. Man, I sure hope to secure this farm site we have been eyeballing all summer. Heres to hope and cool finds like that hutch!! Congrats buddy and once again great story. jgas

Gas, our hutchs up in the district do come in aqua,clear,what we call charcol(the glass has a black tint to it)and what we call straw(the glass has a yellow tint to it) This hutch is straw colored. Cant wait to see your next dig. PPC